Bit of a boring one this time! Lot of "record profits" and "best performance in Build-A-Bear history" and "totally don't worry about the tariffs" and "we love our associates" yadda yadda yadda. Not enough to pay them enough that they don't feel the need to force your hand by unionizing, though, eh?

2 new BAB x Hello Kitty and Friends Workshops are opening soon, but they already published a press release about that so I'm not going to bother screencapping the call transcript.

ir.buildabear.com/news-release...

And Germany!! I knew about this one already because I'm in a German Build-A-Bear fan group on Facebook. They are NOT happy about the prices lol, according to them it would actually be cheaper to import the same bears from the UK including postage and customs which is just wild.

New countries this quarter: Puerto Rico, Panama

New countries this quarter: Puerto Rico, Panama

(The chance wouldn't be because it would be like a gacha per barcode IN MY IDEAL WORLD, but just because certain SKUs wouldn't trigger a special bg. So like the seasonal Sanrios would trigger seasonal Sanrio bgs and bday bears would trigger bday bgs but maybe Pawlette wouldn't have a special bg.)

Scan your furry friend's barcode for a chance at a special background the photobooth can superimpose you onto... this capitalism shit is easy

"Made a new friend!" "My bear's birthday!" "My birthday!" "Did all my chores!" "Did all my homework!" whatever, you know? cheap to manufacture, easy upsell on a calendar. They used to do stuff like this but I think they could do it again & maybe better.

AND!! If you're making calendars,
1) you can pre-plan a few big releases for the year and put them on the calendar (even just on the month) to get kids excited - like if there's a big movie coming out that you have a tie-in for (Sonic, Wicked, etc)
2) you can sell calendar accessories like stickers

I mean modern Build-A-Bear would be charging like $25 for them and then think-emojiing each other at the office because why isn't anyone buying our calendars, but if they could choke down a slightly smaller profit margin I think this could be cute

They're always doing stuff like this for their social media accounts, just slap em on a calendar and sell em for like $15 during the month of december

The heat treatment worked REALLY well on Hass's legs last year (and pretty well on the rest of her body too), so I'm hoping if I keep up with it every year we'll see incremental gains on her fur texture everywhere.

Pre soup for Hass. She is very well loved :)

I am a thousand percent coming home with at least 2 popcorn wristies and one velvet gifting bow but we'll see what else.

I have a little fun money left over from my last paycheck so I may have a little fun spoiling them with new cozy collection things if they seem nice enough when I go in. I heard one (1) person say they liked the new Gingerbread scent so I'm hoping I might also like it enough to put it in one.

We don't talk about Father's Day and how much I'm going to have to spend on a mini Maple Teddy.