By Mackenzie Byerlee & Hannah Graham
Copy editors
The same audience which received Build-A-Bear’s opening in 1997 is returning to the store in 2024 in search of nostalgic satisfaction and running into steep prices in the process.
Over the late 2010s, Build-A-Bear fell off for most of its original recipients, but in recent years, the company has seen a massive resurgence in popularity. In online spaces, the latest releases and re-releases alike have generated viral trends.
TikTok in particular has been a hub for this viral activity. Build-A-Bear has found a gold mine in their new customer demographic: teens and adults.
According to Build-A-Bear’s report on the first half of the 2023 fiscal year, adults and teens now make up 40% of Build-A-Bear’s consumer base, which is a surprising development for a business catering primarily to children’s interests.
In 2023, Build-A-Bear had its most profitable year in history with a revenue of $486.1 million, according to their annual report.
It all started with Pumpkin Kitty last fall, which they re-released for their Halloween collection for the first time since 2008. This had 25,000 people on a waitlist for the very popular stuffed animal. This year, the cat sold out once again, and they had to place a limit of four per person.
For those that grew up with these plushies, seeing them resurface on the internet can inspire them to relive the same rush they had as children. Therefore, it has also become popular to take best friends and romantic partners out to get matching bears and adopt them together.
We ourselves took our loved ones– a best friend and a sister– to Build-A-Bear to collect matching plushies, and the hype was well-deserved. The plushies are soft and durable, and the wide selection of costumes and outfits makes for a fully customizable experience; they hit us right in our nostalgic cores.
Worse, however, is the fact that walking into Build-A-Bear to pick up a new bear is a more costly endeavor than ever before.
Just 10 years ago, when many of us first stepped into the store, the average closing price was $14.63.
The pricing of these lovable plushies has more than doubled now, with each purchase rounding out at around $40.
Spending even $30 on a single plush is a stretch even for adults with disposable income, and if the audience for these plushies is primarily children, $40 is obscenely overpriced.
The plushie alone is around $30, but each new outfit or accessory set can be between $10 and $25 more. That isn’t even getting into adding scents, voice boxes and other personal customizations.
In some cases, the price adjustment does seem justifiable, though.
Build-A-Bear has strategically positioned itself in its market through licensing agreements with Disney, Harry Potter and Sanrio to name just a few.
Understandably, the plushies created through these contracts have a higher price point to account for the licensing costs and because of the demand from superfans.
Popular series like Bluey and Pokémon with cult followings attract attention and require a change in the typical bear design that warrants a price difference.
Yet, as much as Build-A-Bear’s comeback is an exciting development for plushie collectors and nostalgic spenders alike, the lavish pricing is unacceptable.
