To think people queuing for build a bear are Fucking insane

[woodenblock]

Sorry if anyone else has mentioned this also I don't know if this is happening anywhere in the country but where I live they're doing a "pay your age for a bear" at build a bear.

People in my town were queueing for FIVE HOURS + with their children just to get a cheap bear. I think they're fucking stupid. I'm totally shocked that so many people were willing to wait that long for a Fucking bear.

AIBU?

@TeenTimesTwo the US version of the show where the owner goes back to the floor definitely said they have issues. It’s the only logical explanation, get people in with a cheap bear and hope they spend a small fortune on an outfit, shoes etc

Personally I'm having lots of fun going through the Facebook comments and laugh emoji-ing all the outraged 'discustard' posts. Can you tell it has been a quiet day in work?

Hmmmm, custard

I don’t really think BAB are to blame if people decide they want to queue for 6 hours to save twenty quid. Let alone the person on Twitter who’d spent thirty quid on a ferry from the Isle of Wight .

They won’t go on eBay because the whole point of a BAB Bear is that you make it yourself. Maybe the odd Darth Vader bear might be snapped up by an early rising mother of a newborn and flogged on to an adult Star Wars fan for a profit.

Travis1 maybe not a quiet a day at work as Daydreamer7

I've just heard at ours they queued outside the centre over night!

We rolled up at half nine this morning, saw the size of the line and thought 'bugger that' and came away. We don't need a cheap teddy that much.

They are doing the same promo in the US and it’s equally snake like queues there too.

I queued!! And I’m not “fucking stupid” either - you sound bizarrely angry about something that doesn’t directly affect you.

When we joined we were told 2hrs - it ended up being 4hrs 40mins.
I was with my friend and our two babies. My 7mth old goes swimming/park/sensory classes etc almost every day. Today he sat in his pushchair smiling and laughing at all the people - he had a ball, he’s such a people watcher! Not a peep out of him all day. We had drinks, snacks and talked to the other people waiting.
We ended up getting a SW Chewbacca Teddy Bear 🐻 and saved £26. He was so excited! (Just because it’s a Teddy obviously!) I loved putting the heart in and making it and probably couldn’t have justified the price normally.
We had a genuinely lovely day.

Considering how popular yet overpriced they are I've no idea how they thought it wasn't gonna get out of hand.

I've got sympathy for the people queueing though because so many wont have expected such queues and will have promised their child this treat

@MaryShelley1818

In disbelief at The fact you've just told me you queued almost 5 hours whilst you're trying to defend your decision to go. Wtf

So factoring in the queue time that’s actually quite an expensive bear. Unless you consider your time free...

Eh. I've queued over 5 hours while waiting for a Pratchett autograph before (and it's one of my fondest memories). If everyone in the line is having fun, fed and watered it's not a problem. It's when you/your child is unhappy it's an issue.

5 hours?!?!? Willingly? To save twenty quid? For an 11 month old who actually wouldn't know the difference either way?

Almost 5 hours to save £26. Crazy.

It's actually quite grotesque.
Human nature at it's absolute worst, a gullible obsession with certain cleverly-marketed brands combined with greed, entitlement and a smattering of violence.

I don't think BaB have thought this through at all. It actually was one of those "too good to be true" deals, I could tell they would be inundated and I am not a marketer (although I used to write about promotional marketing).

Before we moved into a town that has a BaB I also could not see the point and thought it must be a one-off purchase, but walking past it several times a week I can see that they always have new soft toys, and cover all the crazes - Star Wars, Pokemon, How to Train Your Dragon - so I can see why a child might want more than one. I fancied a Star Trek one myself!

What an epic waste of time , I’d pay £20 not to have to wait in a queue for 5 hours I could earn £150 doing annagency shift in that time .

I know of 2 BaB local to me that have closed down in last 12 months or so, it makes sense they may be in trouble.

They aren't even nice bears!

My DC have one each from a grandparent but it was more about the experience of choosing loads of over-priced customisation and accessories. Hardly the point of saving a tenner on an extremely cheaply made bear.

Bizarre. People have taken their children out of school to queue for several hours for a poorly made cuddly toy.
Loads of people on a Facebook group I'm on are crowing about how much money they have saved, but the majority were never going to buy a bear in the first place so they haven't saved anything.

You probably couldn’t take your 11 month old to an emergency shift though.

I would also happily do a queue of several hours to achieve something I couldn’t get otherwise, like concert tickets or the personal signature of a beloved author, and I get why teenagers like to queue overnight for things like limited edition trainers, because it’s the fun of a group experience. And the people who are first in the queue for the Harrods sale can save hundreds of pounds which makes it worth while on a cost per hour basis. I think the problem about this one is that the benefit is purely financial and way less than minimum wage in many cases.

I found some of the comments on Facebook quite comical. People 'outraged' by the queues or complaining they can't go until after school and suggesting BaB give out vouchers as compensation for anyone who couldn't get one

FWIW my DC love BaB and have 2 or 3 each. I have about 6. Wouldn't queue 5 hours for one though unlike the time we queued to meet Julia Donaldson and get signed books

Agree with @BevBrook - it's Build-A-Bear who are fucking insane not seeing this coming! Or maybe they did and thought the grumpy toddlers and staff getting abused was worth whatever profit bump this will give them?

I saw the ads yesterday and thought it would be carnage, so I avoided it. No way my toddler would have stayed happy in his buggy for 5 hours waiting for a £1 teddy bear. I think the comparison with the Pratchett autograph isn't relevant - if you made that decision that as an adult, he was worth a 5 hour wait, that's fine. A toddler doesn't know how long 5 hours is, and half of them don't even know what a teddy bear is or that they wanted a new one.

Crikey, we’ve got a couple of build a bears here complete with dodgy overpriced outfits that have sat in my dd’s rooms since the day they ‘built’ them. I’d have popped down to our local shop and flogged them for a couple of quid to someone in the queue if I’d known.