Backlash As Build-A-Bear Shuts Down Promotional “Pay Your Age Day” Disaster

**Urgent Alert:
Per local authorities, we cannot accept additional Guests at our locations due to crowd safety concerns. We have closed lines in our stores. We understand some Guests are disappointed and we will reach out directly as soon as possible. https://t.co/aSFfPCcfsG pic.twitter.com/WZJ53tOAEH

— Build-A-Bear Workshop (@buildabear) July 12, 2018

If you still remember what a mall is, then you may be familiar with a certain hellacious slice of the toy industry known as the Build-A-Bear workshop, where, like in a waking nightmare, kids inject animal corpses with stuffing and then accessorize their Frankenstein monsters to the average tune of around $50 total. No joke. You can imagine, then, why lower middle-class parents with nothing to live for were so excited for Build-A-Bear's first ever "pay your age" promotion, in which families could claim any corpse they want for a price equaling the age of their kid.

But Build-A-Bear turned into Build-A-Brawl when hordes of people descended on Build-A-Bear Workshops around the globe to take advantage of the sale. Lines were up to eight hours long, with some people waiting with little children in hot parking lots, and others lining literally the entire lengths of malls. Pay your age day was a massive miscalculation and crowd control disaster, and Build-A-Bear quickly canceled the promotion, unleashing a rage in parents that malls only previously saw during the Beanie Baby craze. Except now we have the magic of Twitter to ogle the carnage.

Build-A-Bear is trying to quell the backlash with vouchers, but the damage has already been done to the people who lost their dignity in malls across the world. The only silver lining is that I can't imagine many of these people had any dignity to begin with.

The line for #buildabear #payyourageday at @mallofamerica goes from storefront, through a packed rotunda and the entire length of #NickelodeonUniverse. And the line is now officially closed. pic.twitter.com/PYnYuTuMJC

— KARE 11 (@kare11) July 12, 2018

People in line at the Altamonte Mall Build-A-Bear Workshop for the "Pay Your Age" promotion @MyNews13 pic.twitter.com/suH8YVc4UQ

— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) July 12, 2018

@buildabear @emma1885 angry and fuming, we are working parents, my wife is having to drive 100 miles after work to get to a store to take up the offer, and now we have a 2 year old in meltdown she's not getting a bear, perhaps your MD wants to consul her @BBCWatchdog #buildabear

— Dave A (@geekonaleashuk) July 12, 2018

More pics of the Build-A-Bear line pic.twitter.com/DXk30z9MX2

— Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) July 12, 2018

Photo Credit: Twitter