Claw Factory — Attraction in Salem

My family and I are visiting Salem and this location reminded us so much of our time in Japan so we stopped by around 7:30PM for a few games. Seemed like folks were enjoying their time and winning prizes so that was a good sign. The space is well designed, bright, and looks very modern. We loved the oversized plushes that covered the interior walls including the two ginormous ducks in front of the store. It has the modern arcade feel with the digital card readers and digital card purchase machines. Their electric bill must be killer. We were impressed with the fact that the staff was dusting often, resetting the machines and helping customers like ourselves with the games. The selfie station was pretty cool since you can text yourself the images and GIFs you take there. There is also a seating area for those who want to take a break to admire your prize haul or if you just need to take load off.

• Pro Tip 1 - When buying your cards, go for the bonus offers and split them in as many cards as they offer (I think it is 5 cards). Yeah it costs about $2 (8 credits) per card, but you get the bonus credits plus you can spread the bonus across all the cards!!! You can't do this at Dave and Buster's or GameWorks. If I had several kids with me, I would have asked for a $150 bonus tier.

• Pro Tip 2 - If you see your favorite plush buried underneath, ask the staff to bring it to the top. They often times will put the plush in front to make it easier to grasp! They really want you to win a prize based on what we saw. See my one picture of the guy who filled his prize bag to the brim. That was crazy.

A staff member saw us trying really badly at one game (5 tries) so they gave us a few extra tries until we won the small plush. That was really nice. This sure beats our time in Taito Station where we spent $50 USD and didn't win once. The games are much easier than the ones in Japan for sure.

Some of our favorite prizes included plushes (Pokemon, Sanrio, Pusheen, etc.), Blind boxes, Pokemon toys and cards.

We had a great time and will be back again during...

Update: I was invited back with $40, but instead of proving my concerns wrong, the visit confirmed them. An employee followed me the entire time and had to use his own card for multiple extra tries just so I could win. When I left, staff told me “See, you can win” and asked me to change my review. This felt staged and not like the experience a real customer would have—not to mention the unwanted stares and attention I got from being shadowed by an employee who was guaranteeing my wins. I won’t be returning.

Spent $40 and only got about 5 minutes of actual play time ( i came in at 5:38pm and left at 6pm) just to go home empty handed, there’s a previous review mentioning the way the claw machines work and i’d agree once you would get the plush it’d hit the top and drop it immediately. Also, because of all the machines the place is really hot inside. All of the games are 8-12 credits to play only one game and their cheapest option $20 you get only 80 points which would be about 6 games. If you go to any place that has claw machines you’d be paying $1 per play which would get you 20 plays instead of the 6 you’d get here. Overall definitely not an affordable place and wouldn’t recommend coming, you’d be better of going to wunderland as you would get much more play time with...

Enjoyed a wonderful evening with my family and not only were our kids involved but also us as parents got to enjoy a great selection of games that was honestly not rocket science to figure out how the machines worked ...the staff and employees at the claw factory made it easy so that we could step by step get a guide on how to play a game or if someone needed more information or just general questions the staff here at the claw factory made it easy to talk to and we're very polite and absolutely very professional to not only us adults but also the children I am definitely coming in thank you to the people at the...