Build-A-Bear Workshop

Having a 5 year old girl, we had visited Build-​A-​Bear many times in our old town. We have since moved, and this was the only one near by. My daughter and Niece had gift cards and I had a coupon, so I figured we would go to this location and let her build one.
My experience started kind of negative, similarly to Steven T’s review. We walked into the store, to find it empty. The only person in the entire store was an employee (my receipt says her name was Gabbi). She glanced at us, and without saying a single word, turned away and paid us no attention at all.
My daughter choose her pet, and went to the un-​manned machine. A few minutes later, Laura came out of the back. At this point, the experience took an excellent turn for the better. Laura was exactly what we were used to at the MD locations. She was super sweet and talkative. She went through the whole process while stuffing, everything from touching the heart to the nose so your pet «knows» you, all the way to adding audio and a scent. Laura was absolutely wonderful.
At that point though, Gabbi stepped in, and everything she was associated with wasn’t very impressive. She first told my Niece that she shouldn’t buy certain clothes for the pet she picked out, even though they would fit that pet. That struck me the wrong way, because, if I am paying for this pet, it’s our choice how we want it dressed. Also, while we were trying to adjust my daughter’s pet bag, she tried to insist to us that we were adjusting it wrong, which we proved, we weren’t; we just weren’t doing it «her way». And then lastly, when the pet birth certificates were done, she just set them on the counter without ever telling us they were ready. I just so happened to glance up there and see them sitting on the counter.
Gabbi’s poor customer service skills cost them a star for this visit. Fortunately, my daughter and niece both had fun and love their pets, and their employee Laura made us feel welcomed, so in the end, it was still a positive experience, despite Gabbi.

I have to admit I don’t much like this store. The problem is my wife and daughter do. So our house are full of bears and other critters. Being that I complain when they get a new critter and they like it so much I have to give them four stars.
I have a monkey he is good at hiding my TV cables, so he’s good at something.

Forgive me if my memory doesn’t serve me well, but I could have sworn there was more to build-​a-​bear than what I experienced the other day. I took my little girl here the other day for her birthday, and I couldn’t have been more disappointed with the whole experience… if you could even call it that.
According to their website «Our Process,» but also what I remember the first time I went many many years ago
We first came into a completely empty store where we were greeted by not one of the two workers. I had the birthday girl walk up and down the stuffed animals to see which one she liked before proceeding to flag down an employee. The worker then walked us straight to the stuffing station where the stuffless animal was filled, asked us to grab a heart, tied her up, and sent us on our marry way to do everything else with no guidance. By then it was too late to add any voice box to the stuffed animal and any other possible (if anything) things if we wanted. When it came down to it and she figured that she wanted the stuffed animal, in the case a butterfly, to be able to say something… it was too late. I had to just tell her that maybe the next time, if ever a next time, she could have one. Had we been led through the «process» and in the right steps her butterfly might have a voice. We then took ourselves on our own process, found our own clothes, shoes, and misc accessories by ourselves. Upon check out the employee mentioned we could make a birth certificate and pointed to the computers… we finished up and went on our way.
For the price of a bear with X amount of accessories you would think you would be able to have better service. If workers are not going through the «process» with the customers, I imagine they are losing out on a bunch of revenue from accessories. Too bad my little girls first, and possibly last experience, at build-​a-​bear workshop was an almost non existent one with no «process» and no story to complete it.