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Furry phenomenon
By MARK ALBRIGHT
© St. Petersburg Times, Build-A-Bear is not your run-of-the-mill plush toy store. Teddy bears get stuffed while you watch. You can record your new furry pal's computer-chip voice yourself. Before each critter is stitched up, the new owner makes a wish and kisses a tiny, red satin heart, which is then slipped firmly into the bear's fuzzy chest. "We're not just selling products, we're creating memories," said Maxine Clark, who calls herself the chief executive bear of this unusual retail start-up. "We're really a theme park inside a mall." In three years, Build-A-Bear Workshop jumped from Clark's imagination into a retailing phenomenon. The 49-store chain, which plans to grow to 73 stores by the end of 2001, has become one of the most highly recruited new chains in mall retailing. Build-A-Bear will make its debut in the Tampa Bay area in September with a store in the new International Plaza near Tampa International Airport. Florida-born Clark was named innovator of the year by the National Retail Federation for 2001. Clark was chief merchant of Payless ShoeSource, the discount shoe giant that accounts for one of every six pairs of shoes sold in the United States, until she left that corporate post in 1996. During a recent symposium sponsored by the University of Florida Center for Retailing Education and Research, she explained how she developed St. Louis-based Build-A-Bear. "Frankly, I felt today's retail shopping experience had grown boring," said Clark, 53. "I wanted to create something for children that blends retailing and entertainment." There's little boring about her bright yellow and red Build-A-Bear Workshops. Beyond the life-sized teddy bears flanking the door, the interior looks like a studio for a children's TV show. Even the shelves, fixtures and cash registers are brought down to the eye level of a 12-year-old. Clerks (called Teddyologists) spend 20 minutes or more escorting each customer through seven stations where they coax to life custom versions of plush bears, bunnies, frogs, monkeys, kitties, ponies and turtles. Kids pick the empty plush shell from a collection of 25. They fluff the fake fur with an air hose, pick or make recordings that shape their creature's personality and create a permanent record of invented life stories. Build-A-Bear borrows from from Chuck E. Cheese's (the stores can be booked for birthday parties), Tickle Me Elmo (toys that talk) and Barbie (Build-A-Bear stores carry 225 outfits for your new pet ranging from Florida Gator get-ups to wedding gowns to skimpy Vegas showgirl suits). Clerks remind customers to accessorize. The store brims with itty-bitty Razor scooters, hockey sticks, sunglasses and enough knickknacks to make your bear look festive for most any holiday. Clark won't say how much the average customer spends to build a bear, but it can add up quickly. The basic bear runs $10 to $25. Add $4 to $15 for clothes. Accessories start at $2 and go up. The average store generated $2.2-million in revenue in 2000, or about $550 a square foot. That puts it in the top quarter of sales productivity for mall-based specialty retailers. Backed by several venture capital firms, Build-A-Bear turned a modest profit in 2000 as sales rose to $57-million. Clark, who controls 40 percent of the privately held stock, expects revenues will approach $100-million in 2001 and figures the company eventually will be taken public. As a business, Build-A-Bear covers the waterfront of marketing buzzwords: customized products, personalized experiences, interactivity and a limited inventory of only 300 items. Even the licensed product craze is represented: Clark signed a deal to sell sandals with the popular Skechers label. "Suppliers from my days at Payless tell me we sell more shoes for teddy bears than any other retailer," Clark said. Such pioneering carries big risks. While the company sends employees to headquarters for training and two weeks of monitored practice at a store, it needs a steady supply of young workers motivated and skilled enough to entertain children. Kids can quickly get bored with new trends they might consider lame. Adults, who account for half of all Build-A-Bear sales, could tire of a merchandising approach that some might consider terminally cute. None of this seems to deter Clark, who's confident of her approach after a lifetime in retailing. Born in Coral Gables, the daughter of a lighting store owner and social worker who made her family's clothes, Clark majored in journalism until she was intrigued by a marketing course. She remembered the fun of being on Burdines teen board in high school and learning what people buy. After getting a business degree from the University of Georgia, she began a 25-year career with May Department Stores Inc. There, she rose from a buyer for Hecht's department stores to marketing vice president of the Venture discount store chain, executive vice president of May's Famous Barr department stores and finally president and chief merchandise officer of Payless ShoeSource. Named one of the 30 most powerful people in the discount store industry by Discount Store News in 1995, Clark said being a woman posed few obstacles in her career. "As a buyer, you're judged a lot by the numbers you put up," she said. Clark's inspiration for Build-A-Bear as a store where customers watch a product being made came partly from a visit she made to a St. Louis baking company with the two children of a good friend. She marveled at how much the children were taken by the field trip. "Girls like to know how to make things," she said. "Boys like to know how things work. There is real magic in that." Clark lost her own teddy bear at 10, and she made a deal with her husband to keep at the office the collection she has amassed in her bear venture. But she has adult friends who are still building on the plush toy collections of their youth. "People have a fascination with things that are cuddly, warm and soft," she said. "You cannot go back in the womb. But having a soft bear is still an acceptable substitute." - Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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