Build-A-Bear closes lines after large response to ‘Pay Your Age Day’

Build-A-Bear Workshop says it is closing lines for its “Pay Your Age Day” event that proved to be massively popular.

“Based on the unprecedented response to our Pay Your Age Day event in our early opening stores, we are experiencing significantly longer than expected lines and large crowds,” Build-A-Bear said in a statement on its website. “Local authorities are requiring us to limit the lines and crowds due to safety concerns.”

The bears typically retail for about $25 each, but the company said that a 1-year-old could get a bear for just a dollar on Thursday.

Social media video posted Thursday morning inside the Natick Mall showed a huge line outside that Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Build-A-Bear says they understand customers facing long lines are disappointed. They offered this statement on their website:

We are now making vouchers available to our Build-A-Bear Bonus Club members in the U.S. and Canada who log into their account by midnight on July 15, 2018. Vouchers related to this event will be honored through August 31, 2018.