Wahhh, Wahhh.......The American Build-a-Bear Crisis!!

[CathyA]

This would be funny, were it just a parody......but it's the trials and tribulations of living in the U.S.

I'm talking about the store "Build-a-Bear", where you can take your child and construct the bear you want. Well, they offered the deal of the cost only being the price of your child's age. Hundreds of people showed up at all the Build-a-Bear stores. There were very long lines. The company soon realized that the lines were too long to accommodate and closed the stores, but handed out coupons for a certain amount off a bear, some other time. They interviewed some of the parents........Oh the humanity! Oh the tragedy of it all. "Our child went home in tears!!"

Are you kidding me?? People stood in line for this for hours and then were devastated when they were turned away? What an un"bear"able tragedy!! Why must we live with such outrageous sadness/stress/ injustice/unfairness??

Now think about those 12 boys and their coach in that cave in Thailand, and how they responded to being in there for 10 days without food or warmth or much light, not knowing if they would live or die.

Get a life, America!!

[happystuff]

Build-a-Bear Crisis... "crisis"? Really? Sigh...

[Yppej]

This report is contradictory "the company soon realized ... and closed the stores" and "people stood in line for hours".

Standing for hours in the heat with a fussy child would aggravate me too. I tried once to get the free donut on a Dunkin' Donuts promotion day and vowed never again.

[pinkytoe]

The thing that saddened me about this story was thinking about what these (mostly) moms are teaching their (mostly) daughters. That it's OK to stand in line for hours to buy stuff that has been very specifically designed to lure you in. I recall how strong it was to resist those forces when raising children (in my case, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) but somehow convinced DD at a fairly young age that advertising was trickery. We would make a game of it by questioning motives and techniques.

[Tradd]

Same thing happened in the UK.

[iris lilies]

Build a Bear is a crock of expensive crap. We took our nieces there one year because I wanted to experience it one time. It is a St. Louis company.

i’ll tell ya a real Build a Bear tragedy: a guy in my neighborhood was married to Maxine Clark (founder)and divorced her before she fot the millions flowing nto her bank accounts. Now he is still out there working at age 75+. So is his current wife, near his age, still working.

[CathyA]

Like you said, pinkytoe, it's sad what these parents are teaching their kids. I suppose it's like the cabbage patch dolls, etc. I just don't get it. These various "needs" are created and the masses just trample each other trying to get them.
There are times (too many) when I'm ashamed of human behaviors. Seems like we are a caricature of greed and mindlessness. Like at christmas, when people get trampled when a store opens. I just don't understand......

[Gardnr]

Like you said, pinkytoe, it's sad what these parents are teaching their kids. I suppose it's like the cabbage patch dolls, etc. I just don't get it. These various "needs" are created and the masses just trample each other trying to get them.
There are times (too many) when I'm ashamed of human behaviors. Seems like we are a caricature of greed and mindlessness. Like at christmas, when people get trampled when a store opens. I just don't understand......

The one that most BLOWS my mind is American Girl dolls. $100ssss and $100ssss clothes, accessories......OMG!

[JaneV2.0]

The one that most BLOWS my mind is American Girl dolls. $100ssss and $100ssss clothes, accessories......OMG!

And I've always thought they looked like stout little rodents. Now, Robert Tonner or Helen Kish dolls, on the other hand...

[Zoe Girl]

Oh I love the American Girl dolls my girls got from their grandmother. They are pricey but much better than Barbie or other options. We got the accessories from the Target line and not official American Girl. We got a few outfits but my girls also made their own clothes for the dolls. My oldest loves history so she learned a lot from the books that went with the dolls and then went on to study more.

However we did not get them because they were cool or we wanted some status things which may be the difference.