Build-A-Bear Workshop

My friend and I took her daughters to build bears. There was only one salesperson working. There were a couple of families ahead of us. We thought a salesperson would come and show us/​walk us through the process but there was no one there to do that. We had the girls pick out bears and we went to stand in line with the other families. Another employee showed up and started checking people out. We continued to wait in line. That can be a challenge for a 3 year old and a 2 year old. When it was finally time for our girls to have their bears bears filled a 3^rd employee came out on the floor. I was standing by the bin of fluff trying to take photos of the girls and the employee stepped around me saying she needed to put more fluff in the machine. That meant me stepping aside and missing photo ops. Not to mention that there was only 1 child behind us in line. Adding fluff to the machine could have waited until after we were done. Once our bears were stuffed the girls went to pick out outfits. We went to make birth certificates for the bears and NONE of the computers to do that were working. The young lady who checked us out was very kind. She was the bright spot in an otherwise disappointing experience.

So let’s be honest, I’m not exactly the target demographic for Build-​A-​Bear. I am not a little kid nor do I have little kids, and I’m not big on teddy bears or My Little Pony or most of the other best sellers at this store. But when Build-​A-​Bear began selling a limited edition Toothless from «How To Train Your Dragon» I definitely took notice — although I had no idea just HOW limited edition this best seller really was. Long story short, thanks to the magic of having the right conversations at the time right, I got my own Toothless toy for Christmas just before he went out of stock again for the season.
Since I received the toy without its stuffing, I went into Build-​A-​Bear the next day to get the job finished — at no extra charge, by the way. Payments made at the register include the stuffing, whether you get it at the time of purchase or later on. They do this to give you the option of buying the toys un-​stuffed. That way, you definitely have the toy but you can still bring a child in later so they can enjoy the rest of the experience, which is a good idea given the popularity of some of their items.
The day I stopped in was actually a relatively quiet day, so the store was extremely clean and had plenty of room for me to breathe — which my toy’s purchaser said was not the case leading up to the holidays, as I can imagine. During my visit I chatted with the staff while waiting and getting my dragon completed, and I have to say that everyone here was super good natured. Also very non-​judgmental about the fact that I was their oldest «kid» in the store that day. But let’s be honest, a good nature is pretty mandatory if you want to keep your job in a store like this — kids will be kids, after all. And the staff definitely do all that they can to make the visit fun for kids, too (the actual kids, not the big ones like me). They’re very good about talking to children and I loved that they always handed the stuffed toys they worked on to kids before they stitched them shut, just so the kids could see how soft the final product would be. Even I have to admit, the smiles during this exchange were pretty gosh darn adorable.
So while by nature this store will often get crowded and quite noisy between parents, children and singing voice boxes and accessories alike (it’s just the nature of the beast), I definitely recommend this location to any parents or family members looking to shop for little kids, and heck — to the other «big kids» like me out there.

Wonderful store with a great staff! No matter how busy they are always friendly and helpful! Such fun energy. Birthday parties always look like a blast and smooth running!