The secret rise and fall of a West Coast relic: the Carl's Jr Playground

 

Carl's Jr in Turlock, California. This location's outdoor playground was removed in 2022.

You know about McDonald's PlayPlaces and you may even have fond memories playing on them back in the day, or even have kids that still play on them. But you may not know about the Carl's Jr Cool Kids Playground. This might be the first time you have heard of such a thing. Because they have slowly, but surely been removing them from their restaurants. And even then, not all of them had them. At their peak of popularity in 2006, 210 Carl's Jr locations featured playgrounds which is only 20% of their 1,062 locations Carl's Jr currently operates. Now only 85 of those locations still have them. But there has been a great disparity between how outdoor and indoor playgrounds have fared, with most of the ones removed being outdoor ones. Unfortunately, a majority of the ones that existed were outdoor ones, especially in California. And there is a disparity with how different regions have fared also. In Sacramento, there were 17 outdoor and 3 indoor Carl's Jr playgrounds at its peak in 2006. Now there is only one in the Sacramento area, an outdoor playground at the Galt location, since the location in Auburn actually closed down a couple months back.  But Utah and Idaho have just as many locations (maybe more) with playgrounds, all of them indoor, as they did back in 2006. The only ones in those regions that went away were locations that closed down. Even the Inland Empire in California still has about 19 locations with playgrounds, a majority of which are outdoor ones. There is even a disparity of where the playgrounds were at in their heyday. In the Folsom, Roseville, and Elk Grove areas in the Sacramento region, almost all the Carl's Jr restaurants featured a playland. But in Rancho Cordova and in central Sacramento, with decent sized populations, they weren't to be seen at their restaurants. 

Carl's Jr in Orem, Utah with indoor playground. 

Carl's Jr first installed playgrounds, to my knowledge, somewhere in 1990 or 91. It could have been earlier than that. Please let me know if you have a definitive date of when the first one was installed and where it was or maybe is at, since I don't have any information on the history of these jungle gyms. The only tools helping me on this search have been Google Maps with their street view and NETR Historical Aerials: https://www.historicaerials.com/, which have been useful in showing me when they first had these playgrounds. Carl's Jr first installed outdoor playgrounds, and then later sometime in 1997 or 98, started building indoor playgrounds. I believe the Utah Valley, which is south of Salt Lake City, which is actually one of my family's favorite places to visit, was the first place to receive them. Carl's Jr continued adding indoor, and surprisingly outdoor playgrounds up till the mid 2000s. The latest new playgrounds they installed in the United States were in 2013 (Technically, they replaced the equipment for an older playground at one of their restaurants in 2017, but I am only talking about new ones they added them at). Interestingly, the Carl's Jr playground is still popular in Mexico and new ones are featuring these jungle gyms. 

But why have different locations quietly removed playgrounds?? Are they victims of remodel projects??No, since many of those locations still retained their look when they still had the play structure and many of them still have the area that had the play structure. Which is somewhat opposite of McDonald's. McDonald's really only removes PlayPlaces when the restaurant received a major redo, and in many cases if they are indoor, they replace the play equipment with new play equipment. 

Was the pandemic the main reason behind removing them?? Maybe. In the Sacramento area, there were 8 Carl's Jr playgrounds remaining in the Sacramento region before the pandemic, and there is now only one as I said before. In my local area, Cameron Park's outdoor playground and Iron Point Road in Folsom's playground were casualties in that time frame. 

The Cameron Park Carl's Jr

But Carl's Jr removed 12 of those before the pandemic and long before then, the last one in the Sacramento area they removed before then was in 2014, and some were removed as early as 2006. 

Did Carl's Jr remove the playgrounds because they are old or are broken?? Probably a good guess. But there are surprisingly Carl's Jr locations that were removed that were in better shape then than ones that are still standing today. In fact, a San Diego franchise just removed a playground they remodeled a few years back. 

Carl's Jr playground in Corona, California. 

Normally, I would say it would be that they were old and were broken. But it was interesting that many of the Sacramento area Carl's Jr playgrounds were removed at the same time, even indoor ones. because indoor ones don't usually get removed unless they remodel the restaurant, which they didn't in those cases. I am guessing it was a franchise decision to remove them, even though I have no information confirming that. There aren't any news articles about them removing the structures. Nor is there really any information out there about this subject, which is why researching these playgrounds was tedious and time-consuming, having to research all the Carl's Jr locations on Google Maps to see if they have or had playgrounds or if they did not. Here's my list I created with all of them listed: https://malls.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Carl%27s_Jr_Playgrounds.  I wrote about these playgrounds because I enjoyed playing at the Carl's Jr playground when I was a kid, even though I probably didn't frequent it as much as I wanted to. Maybe it was a good thing, since I had less exposure to unhealthy food options. But I still enjoyed them and wanted to play on them and I get sad that there aren't as many fun play structures anymore for kids to play on. 

Here's a Bible verse that might be convicting me and telling me that I shouldn't have been indulging in researching Carl's Jr playlands: 

Ephesians 5:15-17 So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise, making the best use of your time because the times are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

This is the history and some of what I have learned about this obscure feature at a fast food restaurant. I hope you enjoyed reading it and that you didn't think it was a waste of time reading it and that I didn't waste my time writing it!! Thank you and God bless!!