Build-A-Bear “Pay Your Age Day” Promotion Forced to Close Lines Due to Massive Crowds

Maria Leaf
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON– What started out as an inexpensive way to get a custom-made teddy bear turned into a lot of disappointed people after Build-A-Bear Workshop was forced to cancel it’s “Pay Your Age Day” promotion, which would allow a child to take home a new friend for a fraction of the normal price.

Molly took this video at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, MD and tells WMAL she wound up leaving the mall after talking with others in line about how long they had been waiting.

@TheMoCoShow Build-a-Bear at Westfield Montgomery Mall is a madhouse! Some people have already waited 3 hrs or more and haven’t got in yet. Here’s just the front half! pic.twitter.com/rB83c5ynp2

— Molly (@TeacherMommies) July 12, 2018

Long lines were also reported today at Tysons Corner Center and the Build-A-Bear store at the National Harbor.

Build a Bear in National Harbor, MD and the line continues around the sidewalk @reesewaters @MelissaNordWx pic.twitter.com/eqbtaQhtSx

— *LivinLife* (@manda20659) July 12, 2018

The huge crowds forced the company to turn customers away.

**Urgent Alert:
Per local authorities, we cannot accept additional Guests at our locations due to crowd safety concerns. We have closed lines in our stores. We understand some Guests are disappointed and we will reach out directly as soon as possible. https://t.co/aSFfPCcfsG pic.twitter.com/WZJ53tOAEH

— Build-A-Bear Workshop (@buildabear) July 12, 2018

Build-A-Bear Workshop later released the following statement:

” Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Pay Your Age Day event generated an overwhelming response, resulting in long lines, extensive waits and disappointed Guests. We feel it is important to share that, based on the information available to us before the day began, we could not have predicted this reaction to our Pay Your Age Day event. We understand that many Guests were turned away as, due to safety concerns created by the crowds, authorities in certain locations closed Build-A-Bear stores and, in other locations, we were forced to limit the line. Unfortunately, given these circumstances, we were unable to serve all of our Guests for the Pay Your Age Day event.

In response, we distributed vouchers to Guests, who were present in lines, to be redeemed for a future purchase. We are now making vouchers available to our Build-A-Bear Bonus Club members in the U.S. and Canada who log into their account by midnight on July 15, 2018. Vouchers related to this event will be honored through August 31, 2018.

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.

Build-A-Bear Workshop takes seriously the privilege of providing our valued Guests with an opportunity to make a furry friend. It is with that spirit that we created our Pay Your Age Day event and the new, year-long Count Your Candles birthday program, where kids 14 and under can “pay their age” for our new Birthday Treat Bear during their birthday month.

Thank you for your passion and continued support.”