Build-A-Bear hosted their first ever “Pay Your Age” event today 7/12, at stores across the US. If you signed up for their reward program, you could have gotten a Furry Friend for the price of your age, or your child’s age, provided that they were present too. That means if your child is 2 years old, you would have paid $2 for the stuffed bear, excluding accessories. Unfortunately, a lot of parents did not get to take advantage of this promotion today! The lines to get into the store were miles long, starting from inside the store, all the way out of the mall entrance, and in many cases, it wrapped around the entire mall!

At my local store, I arrived at 9 am with my children -an hour before the store opened at 10 am, however, the line was already wrapped around the entire mall. I decided at that point that it was not worth it for me to wait in line with my young children and decided to take them to Target to get their choice of toy for under $10 each. My kids were disappointed at first but they were happy with the alternative option.

A lot of parents like me were deeply disappointed about the long wait. Especially those who did decide to wait for hours, only to be disappointed.. To make matters worst, the store decided to officially shut down lines across the US before 11am EST due to security issues with local law enforcement. Some stores across the west coast were not even open yet! You can read the official announcement on their Facebook page.

If you didn’t get to participate in this promotion, Build-A-Bear has issued a $15 off voucher that you can print or screenshot until 7/15/18. The voucher is $15 off any Furry Friend and is redeemable from 7/13/18 – 8/31/18. Log into your Build-A-Bear reward page to print this coupon.