Mashable: Build-A-Bear’s ‘Pay Your Age’ Promotion Goes Awry

St. Louis-based Build-A-Bear offered a promotion this week where customers could create a stuffed animal for the price of their current age, but many were left disappointed after stores were forced to close due to overwhelming turnout and safety concerns.  

Mashable detailed how the promotion ended in disaster for the company as lines were closed full of empty-handed children. Customers who attended but didn’t end up with a stuffed animal received a voucher redeemable through the end of August.

“The response to our Pay Your Age Day event has been overwhelming and unprecedented in our 21-year history. … We feel it is important to share that, based on the information available to us before the day began, we could not have predicted this reaction,” Build-A-Bear said in a statement.