How video games proved to be a winner for Cicis

Amusements have been, quite literally, a game-changer for Cicis. This week’s episode of the Restaurant Business podcast A Deeper Dive features Jeff Hetsel, the president of the 300-unit pizza buffet chain. Cicis has had a strong performance coming out of the pandemic, with sales up 14.5% last year, according to Technomic. One of the big reasons is video games. The company has been convincing operators to expand their game rooms from the eight games they used to have to much larger rooms with prizes and token cards. That has been a major sales boost for the company. Hetsel talks about just how much of a sales lift video games can have for an individual operator. What’s more, that sales lift is far more profitable than the sale of pizzas. Hetsel touches on other topics, including other drivers behind the company’s sales increase.