alt Hacker NewsI can second this. Here in Brooklyn there was some big woop made about the local Chuck E Cheese getting a trampoline floor, seemingly a direct reaction to the arrival of these giant trampoline parks. We went to take a look and it was pretty sad, a tiny little area that had a time limit for each kid to manage demand.
But like you say, they're stuck. There's a great (I mean, relatively speaking) trampoline park in the city but it's out in an industrial area where they could easily find a space the size of a football field. The Chuck E Cheese is in a shopping mall and clearly has no extra space to use.
The couple we frequent have had digital screen "bands" at least the last 5 years and the kids mostly just ignore it. They usually have someone wear a mascot uniform and come dance during the main event, but most kids could care less. They're over in the arcade area. The addition of the trampoline area just occurred recently and the whole time we were their they had a teammate chasing kids off of it because most of them didn't have the necessary grippy socks. Initial observations on my end was that it's going to cost them more to manage it than it will bring in in revenue.
We go there sometimes alone because my son is obsessed with a particular arcade they have and it's like a special treat to take him, outside of birthday parties the place seems dead. Also, I never see anyone actually eat there. I think birthday parties is their entire business at this point. It's even a joke amongst our parent groups that if you are late to plan something, just do Chuck E Cheese because it's easy and pretty much always available. The kids enjoy it either way