Build-A-Bear Workshop - I've never seen such clever marketing!

[perceptionreality]

On the suggestion of a friend I took my 8 year old and 3 year old to this place on Monday. What a confusing place! You could easily end up spending £60 or more on one bear!

However, the girls have not stopped playing with the bears since we got home with them. They absolutely love them. I also saw many children coming to the shop with a bear that they obviously bought some time ago to choose clothes and accessories for it.

I agree. DD adores her bear. She spends all her pocket money on clothes and accessories for it. She spilt hot chocolate on it last week and was almost hysterical about the mess. Fortunately I managed to clean it all off, but it illustrated how much she sees this bear as much more than an ordinary cuddly toy.

I don't get it, is the price on the beer the price of it stuffed and clothed or just the empty sack?

I've never really looked past the door as they pester you as soon as you enter.

It is the price of a complete (naked) bear.

The bears lovingly brought by my dh on a rare day out are at the bottom of the cuddly pile
Currently in pride of place are the £1 shop ones brought by DM.

We went to the one in Birmingham - they didn't pester any of us at all. The children are besotted. Even my autistic dd (who never speaks and who I never buy cuddly toys for because she has no interest in them whatsoever) asked me if she could have one!

They're evil places, I won't go in and make DH take DD.

we use build a bear as a reward for sticker charts filled.. the staff in our local one are brilliant and totally play to the sticker chart thing..they take they chart with a straight face and place it in the till

But yes you can end up spending a fortune on everything from a bear to an mp3 player for said bear ...some of their bears have more accessories than me .. lol

my DDs love the event that is buying them, but then they just live on the end of the bed with all the other soft toys

the price of the bears and even the clothes are not bad but the shoes/hairbands/rollerskates/bags etc are stupidly expensive

I do like the no pressure sales though -the first time we went in I was expecting it to be very ott pester by the staff but they just let the DCs do that

on the plus side the after sales is fantastic -one bear split, they tried to repair it and couldn't do an invisible mend so they replaced it, stuffed it to the same level, took the heart out of the original bear and put it in the new one and then we got a certificate of bravery from the bear hospital where the bear had been made to feel 'as good as new' -and it was 9 months old!

I'm impressed by these things

No no no no no no. Dc will never set foot in one of them.

Why spend so much money on a bear when you could for half the price buy a bear some clothes from Tesco premie section?

Aww, that's lovely workshy. I think the bears are worth the money because they have more play value than ordinary cuddly toys. Dd2 loves cuddly toys but isn't into dolls so these are better for her because she can get the accessories for birthday and Christmas etc.

But you can't buy little roller skates from the premmie section of Tesco.

I love build a bear I'm jealous of my 4 year old her build a bear is so cute and it has it's own Sketchers Twinkle Toes