Claw City Clackamas Grand Opening - My Experience

Clackamas Town Center

12000 SE 82nd Ave

Happy Valley, OR 97086

Earlier this year, my roommates and I visited the Claw City in Lincoln City and had a great time there. I'll be the first to admit that I have never been a huge fan of redemption games, but this experience really hit the dopamine button and made me want more.

I'm a Gen X'er that actually worked in an arcade in the late 90's. I loved playing video games and didn't take to playing games with claws or coin push tactics. My experience at the arcade also allowed me to understand the markup from what was paid for the prizes versus what it took to earn them... hence my skepticism of redemption games.

But then my roommates and I visited Dave & Buster's, and I found myself enjoying those redemption games as well. They actually had a Star Wars video game that I really enjoyed more that the redemption games at first, but that changed over times. I kept getting a nice dopamine boost when we would visit D&B's and started a collection of tickets to my name. It's also nice that everything is now kept on a card instead of actually having to cart around physical tickets like from my days at the arcade or even Chuck E Cheese.

When I first learned that there was going to be a new Claw City location at the Clackamas Town Center, I was excited. We visit this mall on occasion for a few of the other stores, but primarily to have dinner at D&B's. I honestly enjoy this mall because of the store options that aren't available in my local are in Salem.

When I first saw that they made an open call for content creators to come cover their grand opening, it made me excited for the possibility of being able to cover it for The Nat 20. This would be the first time covering an event outside of a comic con. I'm thankful for the opportunity for expanding the possibilities for this blog.

I arrived at the mall around 9:30AM, and I saw the line already extending out of the mall and almost to the Dave & Buster's entrance. I really wish that I could illustrate or articulate the length of this line. If you know the mall, the entrance is over by the Cheesecake Factory and Claw City is located just inside between Lids and Foot Locker. When I went inside, I did see that there was a separate line for influencers/content creators... so that's where I stood. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as long as the other line.

It didn't take long for someone who was working for Claw City to come to check me in and provide me with the $100 game card that was offered for content creators. I will go deeper into what was offered to content creators a little later because this is a bit of a sticking point for me.

The first thing that I really noticed was that this location is much smaller than the others I have visited. Coupled with the amount of people that were allowed in, it honestly made for a fairly uncomfortable situation for a "fluffy" guy like myself.

I took a photo of myself in their photo booth

I will say that they had quite a few machines that offered a bunch of different prizes. Once of my big gripes about the machines at all the Claw City locations is that the prize doors for many of them are located at the bottom of the machine so you have to get on your hands and knees in order to get the prize you've won. For a guy like me who is in his 50's, this is not the most comfortable thing to do. Along with the fact that there was not a lot of room in the location, this felt like something I wasn't going to attempt so this made me carefully consider the types of games that I decided to play.

Being a player of Magic the Gathering, I have seen packs made available as prizes at other locations. In Lincoln City, the cost of the packs is extremely high (3,000 tickets per pack)... and the number of games that allow you to earn tickets is equally high. In the Springfield location, the ticket cost is very low (6 tickets per pack), and the number of games to earn tickets here is also very low. At this new location, the cost for these packs seems very reasonable (50 tickets per pack), but I didn't notice how many games were there with tickets available to earn. If there were fewer people and more room, I would have made the attempt to earn tickets.

When I receive the invitation email for this grand opening, it was indicated that content creators/influencers would receive not only a $100 game card, but also a gift bag and some other incentives. When I asked about this, I was told that there was only a number of bags made available that were already handed out earlier and they no longer had any to provide.

In the flyer for the grand opening, I do see that gift bags were being made available for the first 100 people who came, but I would think that there would be different bags made for the content creators especially since they knew how many they invited in the first place. There was no indication in the invitation email that the bags for content creators would be limited. While not the biggest problem I had with the event, this was one of the straws on the preverbal camels back. 

Here's a screenshot of the email invitation that I received indicating the goodie bag for influencers.

I feel that the location needs improvement. As mentioned before, this was quite a bit smaller than other locations that I have gone to. My favorite location so far is Lincoln City and I think this should be the template for future locations. If Clackamas had the size of Lincoln City, I feel I would have had a more enjoyable experience. I will try visiting again the next time we come to the mall. I didn't get the dopamine rush that I was hoping for, but maybe next time.

Thank you for the opportunity to come and participate in your Grand Opening.