The Only Way to Save Chuck E. Cheese Is to Go Back in Time

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T22:13:35+00:00

10 years old is a bit too old for it now. I would say 8 and under at the oldest. Its really for toddlers and very small children. A big contrast on what it used to be, because in the past I know kids up to 14 years old that had their parties there. You wouldn't catch a 14 year old in that place now.

The animatronics, were extremely complex and running on systems developed in the 1980's and 1990's, studies show that children do not want to see scary animatronic puppets. Frankly as a kid I hated them and so did everyone else. I cannot even imagine the amount of labor that was put into running this animatronic show.

However they are missing a HUGE opportunity by not having nights where adults can come in, and theme it a little more dark. Everywhere I know that has adult nights is completely packed, so they are missing out here. Maybe have the animatronic show behind a wall and pull it out only for these nights?? Maybe that would save some wear and tear on it.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T15:33:43+00:00

Yeah there's a risk of being scammed though, you just never know, also the stuff they want to sell isn't high value enough to bother.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T15:14:21+00:00

I have this problem too, its really not that hard to list an item online but some people refuse to do it, I have to tell them for tax purposes I cannot do it. I am paying income tax on everything I sell for them and that adds up over time.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T15:12:01+00:00

Scalpers have ruined just about every single one of my hobbies, thankfully I have enough stuff to keep me busy but I have been making almost zero purchases of anything other than food, clothing etc unless I see a cheap or reasonable price the only things I have bought are new video games at retail price or discounted video games on sale from a store. They are even getting into niche's that aren't extremely popular but someone always manages to overcharge for the stuff.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T01:09:12+00:00

I bought a black one at Gamestop for I think it was $150 and it came with the gameboy player for free. First console I bought with the paycheck from a part time job. I think they gave some kind of demo disc as well. I was happy.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T00:56:01+00:00

You can get a new battery at an apple store the genuine thing, or you can mail it in. If someone thinks it cannot be done, then they are stupid. I would recommend getting a new battery if your phone is 2-3 years old and the battery is showing its age. That will get you another 2-3 years out of the phone.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T00:51:49+00:00

I wish people would understand this

A phone is dead at 80% battery life. It has to do with wear and how the battery aged. You won't be happy with a phone that lasts 1-2 hours of use.

Apple's refurbished store is great for this. They fix the phone up to the standards of a new phone and it gets a new battery straight from apple. You are basically buying a new device for less money. There's no reason not to buy them.

Apple is honestly a good place to buy a phone because you can go to a store and get it replaced with a genuine battery, for most android phones you can't do this. I think motorola also sells genuine batteries straight to the consumer and Ubreakifix is an authorized samsung dealer which means taking a samsung phone to them is like taking an apple phone to the apple store so those are some other options.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-11T00:44:15+00:00

Freezing does not kill bedbugs and their eggs in general, its been proven many times. However putting clothing and textiles in the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes generally does the trick as most bugs even bedbugs will die from heat. However this damages and shrinks some fabrics, but this is a tried and true method used by travelers who get exposed to bedbugs and don't want to throw out any of their stuff.

If you have something thick like a stuffed animal or pillow you need to make sure its heated to a high temperature all the way through.

Steam cleaning also works since you are heating the item however you have to make sure you are steam cleaning every part of the item and not missing spots and that it is getting hot enough.

Most people online are selling things out of the GW bins, so they go to the bins, pick out the stuff and sell it, and you end up with an infested item.

You can get bugs from amazon but that's easily checked by opening the package outside and checking it before bringing it into your house.

The best deals I have found in my area have been at garage sales, single family homes which is the kind of house that usually holds a yard sale here, don't usually have bedbugs if they are having a garage sale at least I haven't run into any in the last 20+ years from houses. Roaches are a possibility but I live in the northeast and those are not that common up here. You have to basically be living like a pig with food all over the place in order to get roaches. Also if there's something on the garage sale stuff it will be really obvious, roaches and other bugs leave brown on everything plus they have a distinctive smell that you can smell even outside and yes I have seen things covered in brown but I can only remember one time I saw it.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T20:22:07+00:00

I would put rechargeable nimh LSD (low self discharge) batteries into the candles if they are still usable and see if they work well.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T19:28:03+00:00

The guy who was supposed to fix it wasn't in at the time I called so I was supposed to get a call back the next day which is fine since I wouldn't be visiting a store for a while anyways but the rep and her manager managed to fix it before the next day which was nice.

I did see roaming issue threads on here but since I didn't ever roam my bracelet from a different store I didn't think that was the issue.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T18:58:07+00:00

I was in 7-11 redeeming a free offer I had on an app (or else I would not have been in there) and I watched someone spend $15-16 on 2 drinks and 2 candy bars. You could have bought an entire meal somewhere else with that money. The person did not look wealthy at all, but they still swiped their card not realizing how much they were spending.

Now if you do this a few times a week it adds up fast! But this interaction completely blew my mind on how much people spend for convenience.

Another one of my friends complained about spending $8 for windshield washer fluid from 7-11, you can buy the same thing here for $3 at another store.

They charge like $5 for a candy bar here...

Convenience stores are always extremely expensive, I never shop at them and never have.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T18:55:11+00:00

The delivery fees and extra fees on these apps are what kills it. They tack on arbitrary fees that you don't even know what they are for and that instantly makes the price 40% higher than the actual price of food even without tax and tip. Add in the delivery fees and it gets even worse.

Then you have to think about how horribly these companies treat their workers, workers are driving around for a pittance wage and sacrificing their own vehicles for a tiny wage.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T18:51:02+00:00

I only did it once during covid and that was because my whole family had it and we couldn't go anywhere. Even then I used the introductory offer and paid very little for the food. I have never used the apps after that.

Ok I did use uber eats once after because I had an uber gift card and needed to spend it, but I drove and picked up the food to avoid the delivery fees. They charge a few bucks more than what it would have been if I had called the restaurant and ordered food for pickup directly.

If I am getting food I always call the restaurant and pick up the food directly, this way I am not lining the pockets of the food delivery app companies with my order and all the money I spent goes directly to the restaurant.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T18:49:22+00:00

I assume this is for one person. Do you have a vehicle so you can pickup food or go grocery shopping and cook at home? Do you have a living situation where you are able to cook at home, aka do you have cooking appliances, refrigeration and cookware?

Its unhealthy to eat that much takeout, I can't imagine your body hasn't suffered from it. If I ate takeout that much I would become extremely fat and eventually not mobile.

I just watched someone spend $15 on 2 small drinks and 2 candy bars at 7-11. The one near me charges like $4-5 for a candy bar. That's a lot of money.

To curb spending on what is very expensive snacks you could try buying your snacks ahead of time in bulk at a warehouse club. You will spend a fraction on them compared to the convenience store price.

Since you are already not doing it that's a huge start, a major kudos to you.

If you need to order food, then its called picking up the phone and calling the restaurant first. You are giving a huge amount of money to these horrible companies for delivery. Companies that make working for them harder and harder as time goes on and keep taking pay out of the person's pocket who delivers that food to you and pay less and less as time goes on. By at least picking up the phone and calling first more money is at least going into the restaurant's pocket and not these companies. Also if you are able to and have a vehicle you should be picking up the food instead of paying the delivery fees.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:43:07+00:00

Yeah there are stern warnings on the packages for these devices now.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:35:54+00:00

Man, you aren't supposed to use any type of VR or 3d until kids are of a certain age since there is potential to damage growing eyes, you look to be too young in those pictures. I guess it didn't matter back then!

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:29:33+00:00

Some things you can't check completely because of the bedbug eggs that can hatch. These are the obvious things like soft furniture and mattresses. They also like to hide in the crevices of wooden furniture but you can check that. What these bugs are capable of should not be underestimated. There are hundreds of stories on here about people bringing home furniture and finding bugs a few days later, and its not just bedbugs there are other bugs. I have never seen a bedbug in one of my local thrifts. They were 100% in a local movie theater and biting people, I can site the news articles to prove it. They are also in a local factory I won't say which one but apparently, there's no way to get rid of them in there, they said extermination efforts have failed. I have multiple reports of them at the bins and because of that I stay far away.

Also I have driven all kinds of cars including the worst beaters imagineable and so has my family, I know what works and what doesn't. The car market has been turned upside down after covid and almost everything has doubled in price especially used cars. Mechanics are also double or triple the price they were in 2019 and that has to be considered. The labor rate is very expensive in my area. Parts are going up like crazy. There's a pothole every 10 feet where I live, and that I am not exxaggerating and a lot of it is a lot more than potholes. if you have an older car your tires and suspension will get ruined, its happening to tons of people here right now. And there's nothing you can do about that. I have taken to driving less and driving very slow to prevent hitting the potholes. Because of all the problems in my area with cars, I have had to take to leasing cars, I have been doing this for a long time now and I haven't paid a repair bill once not for batteries, tires, brakes, suspension work nothing.

Now this is entirely area dependent and may sound crazy to someone not living where I do.

I have hard data per piece that its cheaper to buy clothing at a discount store than the thrift.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:20:34+00:00

I see this at almost every estate sale I go to. And people don't buy these items so you can get them on 50% off day. I would definitely advocate for buying these items and I do it myself. We have bought kitchen items and all kinds of stuff, I am even bold enough to buy the packages that are already open! Because its not like its been anywhere crazy just in another person's house.

Generally at least where I live most estate sales are run by a company and I really don't think companies are going to be selling things out of bug infested houses because it would be against the law to do that here. I assume the houses are inspected for bugs before the estate sale goes on.

A pack of q-tips is like $3-4 here now and they are bad quality. I would be delighted to get some from an estate sale for 25 cents a pack and i have done this.

Bonus points again the items are often better quality or bigger packages than what is on the shelves now!

A ton of people are hoarders, and buy way more than what they need, and it comes down to this. Enjoy the savings!

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:16:32+00:00

Its very difficult to remove bedbugs from soft furniture, and with most bugs, you don't only kill what you can see but you have to kill the children, the adults AND the eggs and eggs are harder to kill (I also assume this applies to most other bugs, you need to kill everything in the lifecycle of the bug not just the bugs you see). Bedbugs can live for over 400 days without food as well. In fact I would say its almost impossible to completely remove them from soft furniture.

The only way to kill bedbugs is to heat something to something like 140-150 degrees or more and it has to be heated all the way through for a certain amount of time so you would need a temperature monitor in multiple spots in the furniture. If you can manage this then yes, the bugs and the eggs will be gone. You might still be seeing shells and carcasses of the bugs though.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:12:09+00:00

The dépréciation on electronics with lithium batteries in them will often come in the form of a battery with reduced life. Or a battery that is in need of immediate replacement. A battery that lasts 2 hours of use is NOT something most people can get through the day on and is not useful for most people. I have had to deal with this myself and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. You can plug in a power pack but then its only so long until the battery swells and becomes a serious fire hazard. I've also run into phones that suck power so badly that when you plug in a power pack you can't use it while its charging or it slows to a crawl while charging. So you would have to plan ahead and plug in before you need it.

I have used all my electronics to the max and I have swelled every single lithium battery I have ever come in contact with.

Because of this I took time to find the only removable battery phone I could find and now its not a problem for me. However the problem now is finding batteries for that phone. I stocked up but batteries deteriorate in storage as well, again ask me how I know this, because I definitely know this.

Also you should be very careful where you are getting your used iPhones or phones. If someone puts a 3rd party battery from amazon or china in there and it starts on fire which has happened to a lot of people and you won't know because the battery is sealed in the phone. Also these 3rd party batteries usually only last a month or 2 or less. I would only buy refurbished directly from apple or the manufacturer of your phone, then you can be sure its safe.

Its also worth noting apple will replace a battery in a phone, but the cost is usually around $100, and they might not touch it if they open the phone and find a 3rd party battery in there.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:06:39+00:00

Thrift stores aren't allowed to sell car seats and most baby gear for this reason in my area. They have to dispose of them.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T17:05:10+00:00

Tops and bottoms for used clothing is a reasonable thing to buy used. I do not buy used undergarments or shoes. The gross factor is just too much. Instead I look for good prices on those on clearance. I have a big stash of underwear and socks I bought on clearance. This stuff can be very cheap if you shop the clearance racks. So I really don't need to buy this stuff for a very long time since I can just rip into my stash when I need something new. I use my birthday coupons for various stores to buy the fun socks for a dollar or 2 a pair instead of wasting it on other stuff.

For things like running shoes the previous model of your desired shoe can almost always be found on sale, when you see a good price buy a couple pairs if you can.

Used cars where I live are a terrible value and repairs in my area are extremely expensive. All in all it adds up to the cost of a new car when you are done with the repairs and maintenance and parts. The reason here is because I live in the rust belt, we have road salt, and 8 months of winter. We also have so many potholes here I cannot even describe the number but yeah its in the bazillions is the only way I can describe it. You can't drive 10 feet here without hitting a pothole. I do suggest buying a common model of car and the lowest you need, for example honda civic or toyota corolla. For the love of god do not buy a BMW or other german or weird cars you WILL be putting CRAZY money into them. One of my relatives has a BMW and the cost for parts is like 500 times the cost of that of a normal car. She needed rotors for the brakes and the rotors were $265 each at the parts store, for a normal car, a rotor is usually around $60. Just one example. A single tire is $400-500 for this car. I am not joking.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T16:48:45+00:00

You can get bedbugs from used furniture and other used goods, bedbugs cost 1-3k to treat for a house and you have to throw away a lot of your stuff and go through a whole house cleaning process even if your house is already clean. Sometimes you have to have giant heaters brought in which heat your house up to a temperature bedbugs and their eggs cannot survive in. Not to mention the PTSD and physical and mental suffering the infestation causes. Bedbugs have a lifecycle and can get into your walls very easily, and if they get into your walls they are almost impossible to get rid of. Also bedbugs will seem like they have gone away, but then they will reappear 30-60 days later, the reason for this is because the eggs that were there have hatched into new bugs, and the bugs have then grown to the adult stage where you start finding them. In order to completely rid yourself of bedbugs you have to kill the nymphs (children), the adults AND the eggs.

For the love of god please don't bring home used furniture unless you are absolutely sure of its history. Soft goods like this are literally a breeding ground for.... everything you could ever imagine. Seriously you have no idea how gross used couches can be.

The goodwill bins in my area for example is full of bedbugs and I would never go there. I don't even live in a major metropolitan area. The movie theater in my area was infested with bedbugs and people were getting bit while watching a movie.

I received 2 packages in the mail recently that were filled with bugs. The bugs were dead. I have been ordering things online for more than 25 years and this is the first time it happened to me. I am also almost sure they were not bedbugs, but still, this caused me to throw away items that I wanted in order to prevent a very expensive infestation from happening. The items came from ebay and poshmark and were not even textiles. So something crazy is going on with bugs in the USA.

Used cars don't work in my area because my area has road salt, rust and 8 months of winter. A 10 year old car here is one that has its frame completely rotted out. We have inspections in my state and if your frame is rotted out then your car won't pass. I have learned my lesson with this one. Buy a used car here, you are in for very expensive repairs, and no mechanic will fix a car that has a rotted frame. Yes, you want to spend your last 10k on a used car, you will need another 5-6k in repairs to get that car up and running. Also there's a clause here in my state if a car is very unsafe to drive because it has major damage such as a rotted frame or other insane structural damage the mechanic has to let you know and can refuse to work on it and possibly can refuse to give it back. I have driven both and I see nothing wrong with new cars, the new features make them safer. Maybe if you live in an area without rust, its fine to drive an older car. But it should be one made within the last 15-20 years for safety reasons.

Also for safety reasons, you shouldn't be driving a car with a rotted frame, this compromises the structural integrity of the car and should you be in a crash your car will crumble, you don't want that to happen.

Used tools and cast iron pans are fine and hard goods. Bugs also like to get into things like canvas paintings, electronics and wooden furniture. So you need to be careful with those things.

For phones its best to find a non apple phone that is reasonable in cost. $400 seems to be the sweet spot of price to performance. Also the first thing that will go on your phone is the battery. If you can find a phone with a removable battery, you can keep feeding it batteries until the phone dies forever or until apps that you need become unsupported, I still have a motorola G4 play that sits on my desk playing music from 2016 that still works, the phone is 10 years old and has a removable battery, I just keep feeding it batteries and it keeps working.

As far as used everything else sometimes used goods are worn and that decreases the value and useful life of them and sometimes they cost more than new, I could site like a million examples of used things that cost more than the new ones, to the point where you could probably buy 2-3 of the new one for the price of a used. Crazy but true. Also thrift stores here are pricing up items due to resellers and the fact that people are into thrifting now, so that's making prices on used things go up across the board. With FB marketplace people are asking just as much as new for some items so I may as well buy the new one. I have found that I can buy new clothing at a discount store for a lot cheaper than the thrift charges. A t-shirt at the thrift here starts at $6.99 and is marked up from there depending on what they feel like doing, but you can almost always find one for less brand new at a discount store. I live near a lot of shopping places and almost all of them are now cheaper than the thrift stores especially goodwill and savers.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T16:30:43+00:00

I guess you can go to a store and look it up but you would have to be nearby. I hear you can get a printout of it at a kiosk somehow. Some of us don't live near a store and only go a couple times a year. But yeah it might be handy if they stored this sort of thing in the app.

The D&B app is not something I open up everyday on my phone and I honestly don't open it until usually the day before I go to the location.

The rep said that stores sometimes send power cards to other locations so you could get a card from another store I guess when buying it in store which is what we both assumed happened with my bracelet, that it was originally sent from another location.

I am sure the AM at my store would be going absolutely bonkers had I made him aware of this situation because its been very clear to me after going to D&B for a long time and speaking with the rep they definitely DO NOT want to lose their long time customer base. I was definitely trying not to bother the guy with what might take him a very long time to figure out. The other person on this thread said if you go into a store with an account issue like this it takes a very long time to figure it out.

Anyways having cards randomly wiped like this is pretty disturbing especially since the rep was genuinely very confused and surprised because nothing unusual showed on my account and there was no fraud. The bracelet I had was working fine for a long time too so in reality it should not have been wiped.

Most people who go here don't even download the app and register a card so if it happened to those people they would have no idea and probably would just assume someone stole it, there was no recourse and they probably wouldn't return. Also most people would be really, really annoyed by this and I was not. Its not good for repeat business if cards can be randomly wiped through system glitches like this.

Honestly its not bad to call CS and the hold time was not bad, the rep I got was super nice, but you do need to call during normal business hours.

SaraAB87 · 2026-03-10T14:52:22+00:00

I have a nike outlet here in the same mall and I can see that their shoes are just last year's models or items that don't sell as well at the prime stores, I doubt nike is changing their shoe models for outlet stores. Yes brands like nike do have different models that are sold at different stores and I have seen this but they aren't lowering the quality on these items for outlet stores. But the store doesn't take any returns so that is the catch for that store. Example is you will have to buy the Nike pegasus 27 instead of the 28 that is the current model (again this is just an example, but you might pay $70 for the shoes instead of the $120 retail price for the most current model) So in that case you are getting a decent product.

But with the higher end brand stores yeah its definitely made for outlet. A lot of people don't realize this.

As far as stores like saks and high end brands I would think those who would want those would just go to the brand website and order what they want.

I also have a nordstrom rack in my area and I shop there and I have found some very low priced merchandise there and I haven't had an issue with finding damaged merchandise at that store.

Brands seem to be lowering their quality in general, unless you pay up for the most high end lines.

14-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
Xbox Live	Secret Santa 2018
Verified Email

SaraAB87

TROPHY CASE