Build-A-Bear ‘Pay Your Age’ Deal Ends in Failure

Today, Build-A-Bear Workshop halted its first-ever “Pay Your Age” sale and it ended in complete chaos. Build-A-Bear was forced to shut down a deal that allowed customers to pay their age for bears after chaos broke through stores and malls across the United States and the United Kingdom.

With each bear retailing between $25.00-$55.00, this was a steal. Children were able to pay only a few dollars for bears, and adults being capped at $29.00, this drew crowds of families alike. The long lines posed a safety hazard to many malls, and they posted an urgent alert on social media halting the sale altogether.

Parents were obviously furious to find that the “pay your age” event had been canceled only hours after its launch, especially with many waiting in lines for up to six hours, and then were turned away.

Many took to social media to vent, especially since this was ill planning on the companies part, not expecting this many people to come to their stores.

For those who waited in the excessive lines, the toy company handed out vouchers that could be redeemed until the end of August, having $15.00 off all bears.

The company released a statement saying “Build-A-Bear Workshop takes seriously the privilege of providing our valued Guests with an opportunity to make a furry friend… It is our sincere desire for all of our Guests to enjoy the best Build-A-Bear experience possible. As such, our goal with the voucher extension is to enable us to better flow traffic to the stores over the next several weeks to avoid long lines and wait times as much as possible. Therefore, we strongly encourage Guests to consider delaying their trip to Build-A-Bear, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding and patience in this matter”

Author:
Erin Whitten is currently CMN's Senior Correspondent and is currently a student at Arizona State University majoring in Mass Communications and Media Studies.