Did anyone else brave Build a Bear today?

[myotherbagisgucci]

My friend texted last night telling about this amazing deal at Build a Bear. So DH and I thought why not and headed down this morning at 9am (stores opening times)

However this turned into an all day queuing extravaganza and now I'm absolutely exhausted.

Did you brave queues? And if so, what are your BAB stats?

Here are my mine! 😭

Total queuing time: 5hrs 16mins
For: 6 month DD
Why: Because I'm a fucking idiot.
Bear purchased: Pastal Swirl Kitty

I was just reading about this! For a 6mo was it just 50p then?

No, minimum was a £1!

I was going to go but someone mentioned the queues and I thought sod that, I'd rather pay £20 then queue for hours for a teddy lol.

£20 odd pound*

I didn’t but it all kicked of at my local one. Absolutely pathetic. (Them, not you obvs)

@diedyediedye I totally agree and wish we hadn't gone. But once we started queuing, we just couldn't stop. It was like we didn't want to waste the time we'd already invested.

Absolute madness! Lol

At least you'll have a story to go with your bear for your dd! 😉

My DH said we'll all laugh about today when we look at that bear! 😂

I really hope she likes the bear

You should print off one of the news articles about today and tuck it into the bear's pocket for her to read some day 😁

Got to our local just before midday and the queue wasn't that long (maybe 40 minutes queue time) but they closed the line and didn't let anyone in for the rest of the day. There was lots of crying kids. A guy from the store was handing out £12 off vouchers and I overhead him tell someone that someone had spat at him!

I feel like we were the only people that went but managed to miss all the madness! Got there 9:15 for shop opening at 10. No one else was there - a few more people were by the time doors opening but not loads. Inside a department store so needed to go in and up in the lift with buggies which made any kind of queuing outside totally pointless as there were doors on two floors. But.. got up there - and we were done and out by 10.11! One person ahead of us for stuffing and no one at the till. Couldn’t believe it. Absolutely delighted toddler with his £2 bear. To be fair by the time we left the queue was going right back through the shop. Got in and saw the news coverage - we were clearly super lucky with our nearest store.

Total queuing time: 5 hrs 6 mins
For: DD 3 DS 4 Months
Why: Because I'm too tight to spend £40 quid on build a bear. I am also a fucking idiot.
Bear Purchased:Jurassic world T Rex and Toothless

She did like the bear @OnlyFoolsnMothers or I hope she does, as it's coming everywhere with us for the forcible future! Lol!

Good idea @Sunrise888 - one for the memory box!

@CranberryLemonade you and your LO were very lucky by the sound of it!! Well done!

I'm glad I'm not the only one @Iwantamarshmallow 😉

I had planned to take dd, got to my local shopping centre at 10.20 (store opened at 10) and queue was already mental didn’t bother in the end

We did!
Total queueing time: 3.5 hrs
For:DD 2
Why: She was excited to pick a bear and I was excited to let her and after an hour I didn’t want to “waste” the time we had already queued😂
Bear : Paw patrols Skye and carrier

I looked at my 2 kids and thought, nope, there’s no way I love either of you enough to stand in a mile long queue for 4 hours

I’ll take them tomorrow and pay full price.

I've just got an email with a 12 pound voucher as they had to stop people queuing, they've sent a voucher out to everyone who registered but didn't get their teddy!

At my local store thousands of people were turned away after queuing for hours as there were fights in the que and they had estimated that they would still have people queuing after they closed... a £12 voucher would not have cut it for me. DD loved her bear but I think the promotion was poorly planned and irresponsible.
Luckily the weather here was a bit cooler than of late but I hate to think what would have happened had those kids been stood out in 35 degree heat. No one had planned to be stood there for 5 hrs so most people has limited supplies, it's a wonder no one got hurt or became unwell. I imagine there will be alot of complaints for build a bear deal with today.

Got to our local one at 9.30, store opened at 10am.
Black Friday type comedy sketch of mums scrambling under the shutters and tearing through the store, staff jumping out the way etc.

Queued with 3yr old DS for 1hour, 25 mins.
Got his bear and went home.

Saw the news in the evening and what utter madness.
The disorganisation was palpable. Really badly done.
My store is a boutique inside fenwick.

Thankfully there was no rioting or bad behaviour. We all queued like the polite British citizens we are! Lol

I went yesterday with my almost 1 year old DS, the wait was just over 4 hours and my DP came to meet me in the queue as he got out of work early but DS got a bear although not the one I was hoping on getting but he didn't care as he's so young! My local shopping centre had good security and everybody behaved civilised, they even managed to stay open past 7pm!

My local store opened at 9am and I got there at 9:10 and there had to be at least 200 people queuing already. It snakes outside the shop for about 4 rows then trailed off all the way down the shopping centre all the way round the corner.

As soon as I saw the queue I thought "this isn't worth it". My son is 8 months old, so it's not like he gets the experience. I'll use the £12 voucher after payday to get him the bear I had my eye on (the rainbow triceratops).

But if people are paying only 1 pound for a bear won't they lose money. Or do they make more on the accessories

I wonder if the person who thought of that promotion still has a jiob today!