To think people queuing for build a bear are Fucking insane

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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?

As much as I think queuing like that is crazy,considering how much could be saved for buying a young child one or young children one,especially a toddler, it kind of justifies it. After all, people queue for sales,especially after Christmas for hours.I never thought they were that expensive now. I think the real issue is that it was a publicity stunt that was hugely mismanaged and backfired. They surely must have had some idea exactly how popular it was going to be,it's ridiculous to suggest they were completely unaware of how it could have turned out. They were having to give out vouchers at our local one and shut at 4. There were people who had travelled miles and people who brought their kids after school that had to miss out so it's the disappointed kids I feel sorry for. I just wonder how costly it will turn out to be for them in terms of bad publicity and vouchers and compensation to parents who will try to claim it. In regards to the outfits being expensive, I have noticed that they don't tend to put them in sales anymore,only the bears/toys themselves, but for the company to claim that the reaction was 'unprecedented' oh come on,you don't need to be a marketing genius to figure out this would have been the case.

I don’t even think it’s bad publicity. It’s the general public that look stupid.

Any publicity is good from BABs point of view. What's not good is that people behave so badly.

It's not the first time - remember the Black Friday when people were fighting over cheap televisions in Asda?

I can see why mary had a good day and if I had a young baby in a buggy I would have happily qued chatting to a friend and playing with baby. No different to taking a baby to costa for several hours which is widely acceptable to do for Sahm's.

My dd got her first bear when she was a month old. They now have loads and a big box of clothes that have been bought on sale or second hand. The shop are v good and will re stuff our well loved floppy bears (even repaired a hole in one of dd1s)

We went in after school, I hadn't checked social media had no idea the shop had closed. Dds were happy with a shopkins toy and mcflurry instead. Will go in next week with the £12 voucher to get a pokemon bear to put by for dd1's birthday. Result!!

What chuckles me is the lies of Mary would have received a £12 off voucher so her great saving isn’t actually that great. Her bear was £27 full price so she only saved £14 😂

i thought about going and qeueing for 1 our DD 5 loves them. But it was a Day that both DH and I work.. not easy for everyone (exception of retired, unemployed, millionaires or benefit claimers) to attend !!!!!! would not be willing to qeue that long even if they were free!!!!

My daughter got to Hamley's at 11am and they handled everything so well. Placed seats around the line for customers, were handing out bottles of water. A women with a puppet walked around for the kids, guy with a bubble gun etc. They stopped the line when it was 4 hours long and took people’s names and told them to come back at 4pm. She only waited 2 hours, so she was lucky really. Shame a lot of people had bad experiences.

I didn't bother going on the day, I was working anyway - but it was obvious it was going to be manic.

The queue at our one was five hours. I am sorry but I cannot understand why anyone would queue that length of time to save £20 or whatever they saved. To me, it's not worth my time, I would much rather pay full price and not queue five hours!!

Seeing as anyone can now get hold of the £12 voucher anyway just by signing up for an account, it's not even like those people who did get a bear, saved that much anyway!

I went in today and got one for £12 with the voucher - no queuing! Granted, I could have got it for £1 had I queued for five hours (and taken the day off work...) but I would much rather pay the extra £11!!

I took my 3yo. I went with friends and their children. The children all played together and behaved wonderfully. Tesco handed out free bottles of water, Organix gave out free food for the children and body shop came out with free samples. It was a lovely day and my ds really enjoyed himself, he still hasn't let his charmander go :)

My daughter got to Hamley's at 11am and they handled everything so well.

What’s Hamleys got to do with it?

There’s a Build-a-Bear concession within Hamleys Oraange.

I guess that Hamleys a) has the staff to deal with the situation and b) is quite strongly motivated not to have fights/tantrums/litter etc all over their store.

Thanks Thomas.

It's quite sad that other businesses feel they have to give away merchandise in order to placate the crowds.

Why would Tesco etc hand out free stuff to people that chose to stand I a queue with children for that length of time?

Yes I agree they are mad.... who stands in a queue for a bear for several hours and then moans about it.... you can see how long the queue is refuse to join the stupid already there.

Just seen the Liverpool FC bear... I take my earlier remarks back.

Seriously though... to queue for that long, in this heat, especially with kids... it's mental.

It’s hard to believe anyone could be that desperate to get a free or almost-free teddy bear for their kids. And it’s only the bear so they’ll still have to pay for extras and accessories. Bizarre...

Orangesoda: there is a build a bear there and they had the same offer

How rotten for a child to have to sit /stand in a queue for hours just to save the parent a few quid !

The one where I live actually had to be shit early because there were people attacking each other. Mental like

I went. I got to the shop an hour early thinking of getting a coffee and breakfast with my son. It turned out there was a small queue so we just got in it. Find out after joining the queue that they are opening an hour early that shown on the website. In the end I queued for 15 mins outside then went inside and we picked a bear. Took half an hour to stuff and pay for it. All in all 45 mins and one very happy toddler who has slept with it every night. I wouldn’t have waited for hours as I don’t think my DS would have tolerated it but 45 mins was okay and he was so excited.

People are fucking thick - what else is there to say?

What a waste of money and time!
I can see why they’re doing it though, and it’s a clever marketing strategy. Get the kids to nag their parents to take them, which they dutifully do. Then here’s where ‘make a bear whatever’ makes its profits. Teddy needs dressing. Pants, vest, Trousers, jumper/top, coat, footwear, briefcase if it’s Paddington bear, etc.
Hey presto, before you know it you’re at the till being asked to stump up £50/60 at least, and you pay obediently in a state of shock.
Then you need to go back because teddy desperately needs those ‘oh so cute pyjamas’, another £30 with the dressing gown too.
Plus teddy will require other outfits in the future; so more money the parents will have to pay out in future... Another £30-50 is squeezed out of the parents each time they go shopping just to keep little Johnny happy and more to the point he’s kept QUIET!!!
What a very underhand profitable marketing ploy...! 😂😂😂😂