PHOENIX - Kids love the indoor playgrounds you find at many fast-food restaurants. For parents and grandparents, like Terri Hatch and Mary Ann Garcia, of Phoenix, the experience at some restaurants has been shocking to say the least.
"Yeah, (some) use it as a bathroom," Hatch said. "I'm mean that's pretty nasty."
And that's just some one of the disturbing things found inside the indoor playgrounds, which aren't tested for cleanliness. Six years ago, Erin Carr-Jordan and her company, Kids Play Safe, took up the challenge and did some testing.
That's why she's been pushing for change at these restaurants. Now at some, the game has changed. Like at this Chuck E. Cheese pizza place along 35th Avenue in west Phoenix.
"Yes, you can trust that when you come to all locations that are Kids Play Safe-certified that your kids are safe," Carr-Jordan said.
At hundreds of Chuck E. Cheese locations, staff adhere to strict cleaning schedule that includes only certified non-toxic cleaners with particular emphasis on the large play structures in each outlet. At the west Phoenix location, staff painstakingly cleans the interior of the elevated tube once a day, along with all touchable surfaces.
Chuckie's decision to go green made good-sense health-wise, and good business sense, too.
“That’s why the Kids Play Safe partnership and certification was a natural fit for us," Tom Leverton, CEO of CEC Entertainment, Inc. said. "We are excited to be implementing these environmentally safe practices in our stores nationwide,” he said.
"Parents told us what they're interested in seeing and hearing about," Carr-Jordan said. "And they would make buying decisions based on those factors," she added.
That kind of green certification is already making grandparents like Mary Ann Garcia feel better about letting her grandkids play there.
"It's a nice feeling that you know that it's clean and it's not disgusting and they're not going to come out with some disease," Garcia said.
For more certified locations, visit Kids Play Safe's website.