Build-a-Bear in Salinas thrives despite others nationwide

A special promotion by Build-a-Bear was so successful Thursday that many stores had to close up shop for the day. Luckily, that hasn’t been the case in Salinas.

We’ve been reading about unbearable situations all over the country as parents and children lined up to get their customized teddy bear, but here in Salinas, the smiles are still in full force.

On Thursday, all Build-a-Bear workshops in the country are running the “Pay Your Age” promotion where the store will sell any of their stuffed animals based on the age of the child receiving it. For instance, if you brought in your three and eight-year-old-kids, you can buy them bears for a total of 11 bucks. The Build-a-Bear store in the Northridge Mall in Salinas has been open for over two years, and it’s manager has never seen a day quite like it.

“This beats National Teddy Bear Day which is insane, this beats Black Friday which is even more insane. This is wow, this is breathtaking with the response from Monterey County. It is awesome to see this many people here just to have fun, just to enjoy Build-a-bear. Just to party!” said Northridge Mall Build-a-Bear Chief Workshop Manager.

Lemos says they’ve been able to keep their bearings despite the line going out the mall doors about two hours before the store opened at ten AM. While the Build-a-Bear location in the Northridge Mall looks like they won’t run out of bears to sell, other locations around the country have had to embarrassingly close their doors as they ran out of stock. With that unbearable news, customers in many cases were outraged after waiting for several hours, creating dangerous and, dare we say, barbaric situations.

But again, you won’t find any barricades at the Northridge Mall location which will be open until nine Thursday evening. We also reached out to the Chicago Bears for comment, but haven’t heard back, and don’t expect to.