wineninja

This is a tough one... Probably the time I walked up to a customer and she was quietly cursing out one of the display bears. I'll never know what it did to make her so mad.

It's really hard to pick one.. nothing makes me happier at work than when I can see that I have really made a BAB trip special for a family. When parents leave with genuine smiles and a million thank you's, and when kids are literally bouncing with joy and excitement over their new friend.. it really puts things into perspective for me. This may be my job, but for other people it might be the best 30 minutes of their day.

All that being said, one of my favorite memories was when it was near closing time so I was making a list of things I needed to stock, and a little girl who I had been helping asked what I was doing and if she could help me. Of course I said sure, so she grabbed the list and my pen out of my hand and "signed her name." She was only maybe 3 so her signing was just some lines. Either way I thought it was so freakin cute that I took a picture of it that is still on my phone!

Other fav memories are from one particular family who always happened to come in while I was working. It became a running joke that I was the only one allowed to stuff bears for them but they stuck too it! They would come in and say "Oh we were here the other day but you weren't here so we left!" I even met the whole extended family when they were in town.. it was so sweet because they already knew all about me. This family moved away though a few months ago which is sad :(

Oh geez! I imagine there might have been an awkward moment if the sound accidentally went off during the stuffing process!

I answered this question earlier and said that I hadn't had anything weird, but your story reminded me of this guy who made a bear for his girlfriend who was moving away for college- put a sound in that said "you're a fucking asshole!" Normally I would have been like hey there buddy calm down this is a children's store BUT there were literally no other customers in there so I let it slide lol

It's actually really fun! It can be tough to maintain the high energy persona when you're feeling sick or having a bad day, but for the most part people who shop at BAB are in a good mood/excited to be there and you're basically just playing with kids your entire shift! PS love the bearism ;)

Oh man! I definitely DON'T recommend trying to change the battery yourself. If it's our build-a-sound, you can actually take it into your local BAB and for about 5 bucks they will ship it off to the bear hospital, then from there it will be sent to the company that makes build a sounds where the batteries will be changed and it will be returned to you in 7-10 weeks. Because this is such a cherished and special sound though, I do agree with other comments that say to attempt to record the sound on some other medium first! You won't be able to export it, but you should be able to get a good recording of the sound on a phone.. I say get a recording or 2 right now while the sound is in the bear, then get a few more recordings at BAB once the sound is out of the bear. It will give you piece of mind to know that you still have the recording on something like your phone- just in case anything happens to your sound. I'm so sorry to hear about your mother :(