Planet Pizza was a U.S. restaurant chain with video gaming arcades that operated in the 1980s and 1990s. It was founded in 1981 as a competitor to the hugely popular Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. The company enjoyed limited success in the early 80s as a low priced, high quality pizza chain, but sales eventually slumped with a customer shift to a lower-income clientele.
Planet Pizza was founded in 1981 in Cupertino,California, as a low cost, high quality pizza chain aimed mainly at the middle class. At the time Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E. Cheese was dominating the market and was not expected to last long. However, the chain was more focused as an arcade, rather than an entertainment center. As a result, none of the chains had animated characters like the other two, but instead had large arcades and play areas. When the first restaurants opened, the company enjoyed huge success because the restaurants were very cheap and large compared to the other two restaurants. By 1984, the chain was receiving huge success around the nation.
However this was a very short lived period of success. In the mid 80s, the restaurant began losing its original target, the middle class, and started attracting the lower class. The restaurant started to be filled up by people others considered unacceptable to sit by and was starting to pile up huge debts. The buildings themselves were also falling into poor condition as the chain was growing notorious for the frequently broken games, revolting pizza, flooded bathrooms, mean employees, and dirty floors. The restaurants were also known for their lack of safety and protection as the buildings were overcrowded to the point that pickpocketing was common in the restaurants.
Another problem experienced by the chain was that the restaurants were placed in low density suburbs compared to other restaurants that tried to place their restaurants in high density areas with major attractions. This was done in order to ease up the companies huge debts.
By 1996, most of the restaurants were being closed by inspectors and started mounting huge debts to employees, factories and other places. In 1998 the company filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. By then the company started to sell stores to Chuck E. Cheese (CEC)and private owners unaffiliated with the chain. The most dilapidated stores were demolished. The company itself went out of business in 1999, but permitted the Dallas Texas location to keep operating under the same name by itself. The restaurant is reportedly pending demolition.