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Build-A-Bear Promotion Goes Out Of Control As Crowds Mob Stores

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A sweet deal to score children fuzzy new friends went wrong Thursday when overwhelmed Build-A-Bear Workshop stores across the nation shut down a special promotion halfway through the day, leaving thousands of children and parents disappointed. The promotion priced the company’s stuffed animals equal to each child’s age, starting at $1. Customer response went far beyond expectations. Huge lines were reported outside stores in Boston , San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and New York. At around 1:45 p.m., the company tweeted that all stores would stop taking new orders today. “Urgent Alert: Per local authorities, we cannot accept additional Guests at our locations due to crowd safety concerns. We have closed lines in our stores. We understand some Guests are disappointed and we will reach out directly as soon as possible,” the company posted on Twitter. **Urgent Alert: Per local authorities, we cannot accept additional Guests at our locations due to crowd safety concerns. We have closed lines in our stores. We understand some Guests are disappointed and we will reach out directly as soon as possible. https://t.co/aSFfPCcfsG pic.twitter.com/WZJ53tOAEH — Build-A-Bear Workshop (@buildabear) July 12, 2018 By mid-afternoon, the retailer had issued an apology to customers and offered vouchers for children to get their stuffed animals another day. “We feel it is important to share that, based on the information available to us before the day began, we could not have predicted this reaction to our Pay Your Age Day event,” the company statement said. “We understand that many Guests were turned away as, due to safety concerns created by the crowds, authorities in certain locations closed Build-A-Bear stores and, in other locations, we were forced to limit the line.” Social media tracked huge turnout at the retailers across the county. Build-A-Bear Workshop On 34th Street, Manhattan Outside the @buildabear on 34th….Part 1 @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/62mu5FkGm7 — Alice Gainer (@GainerTV) July 12, 2018 Outside @buildabear on 34th continued ….. @CBSNewYork pic.twitter.com/VzN7WDEN5Q — Alice Gainer (@GainerTV) July 12, 2018 Staten Island Mall: Menlo Park Mall in New Jersey: Paramus Park in New Jersey: This is the line at @ParamusPark for the @buildabear pay your age day. Mall management and security are present, handling the crowd well despite the fact they were caught off guard. pic.twitter.com/zm8v5hG8zb — (@APH005) July 12, 2018 Around The County: No, really. This is the line at Mall of America, where Build-A-Bear-Workshop is promoting their “Pay Your Age Day” deal, which was so popular they eventually had to cut off the line. | https://t.co/kJ9Mhu6u2h pic.twitter.com/1PPDrKUbir — WCCO – CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) July 12, 2018 Wow. The Pay Your Age Day crowds at Build-A-Bear are huge. Hundreds of people lined up OUTSIDE Valley Fair Mall in San Jose… pic.twitter.com/kLPL7upnsJ — scott budman (@scottbudman) July 12, 2018 Build-A-Bear is overwhelmed with customers they have cut the line off at Chandler Mall in Arizona they are asking people not to come… They have handed out $15 off dollar coupons. #12News #BuildABear #Longlines pic.twitter.com/aAptX3vbDt — PhillipMathews (@PhillipMathews) July 12, 2018 Prov Place Mall acting like somethin fire just dropped. Nah just some build a bear day special pic.twitter.com/tIdleRfkFn — Trev (@Trevytrev401) July 12, 2018 People in line at the Altamonte Mall Build-A-Bear Workshop for the “Pay Your Age” promotion @MyNews13 pic.twitter.com/suH8YVc4UQ — Ashley Carter (@AshleyLCarter1) July 12, 2018 Yep..this is the line at the mall of GA for build a bear I don't even see the store pic.twitter.com/rkk3Ebe3s5 — Becky (@rebecsierra) July 12, 2018 Photo Credit: Jamie Laureen Armstrong Photo Credit: Jamie Laureen Armstrong The photos above were taken at the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill. Both the pictures feature a look at the line inside and outside the mall for the Chicago suburbs’ Build-A-Bear Workshop. The major mall is located northwest of Chicago.

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Build-A-Bear Promotion Goes Out Of Control As Crowds Mob Stores

July 12, 2018 0 comment

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Starbucks To Stop Offering Straws At All Locations By 2020

written by Pepper Miller

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Starbucks announced Monday it would stop offering plastic straws from all of its stores by 2020, becoming the largest food and beverage company to do so as calls to cut waste globally grow louder. Viral videos — including one depicting researchers extracting a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s bleeding nostril — is prompting some companies and municipalities to find ocean-friendlier alternatives. A week after its hometown banned plastic drinking straws and utensils , the Seattle company said Monday that within two years, it will be using straws made from biodegradable materials like paper and specially designed lids. The company already offers alternative straws in Seattle. In Southern California, beach cities like Malibu and Manhattan Beach have already banned straws and plastic utensils, while Sea World further south has followed suit. Similar proposals are being considered in places like New York and San Francisco. We're removing plastic straws in our stores globally by 2020—reducing more than 1 billion plastic straws per year from our stores. — Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks) July 9, 2018 To replace the straws, Starbucks also debuted images of its new strawless lids, which will begin to appear in Seattle and Vancouver locations this fall, with phased rollouts within the U.S. and Canada to follow next year. A global rollout of the strawless lids will follow, beginning in Europe where the will be used in select stores in France and the Netherlands, as well as in the United Kingdom. The lid that is replacing the straws is also plastic, but is also recyclable. The strawless lids will become the standard for all of Starbucks’ iced drinks except the Frappuccino, which the company says will be served with a straw made from paper or a compostable plastic manufactured from fermented plastic starch. Straws made of alternative materials will still be available to customers on request. The issue is coming up in company boardrooms, though Starbucks is taking the lead among large food chains. McDonald’s shareholders voted down a proposal requesting a report on plastic straws in May, although it recently said it would switch to paper straws in the United Kingdom and Ireland by next year, and test alternatives to plastic straws in some U.S. locations. In May, Alaska Airlines said travelers on its flights would be served drinks with compostable versions of stir straws and citrus picks: white birch for coffee and bamboo for citrus sticks. The Seattle-based carrier, which said it handed out 22 million stir straws and citrus picks last year, also said it would have non-plastic, marine-friendly drinking straws for travelers that request them. While plastic drinking straws have become one of the more high-profile issues environmentally, they make up only about 4 percent of the plastic trash by number of pieces, and far less by weight. Straws add up to about 2,000 tons of the nearly 9 million tons of plastic waste that ends up in the water each year. © 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Starbucks To Stop Offering Straws At All Locations By 2020

July 9, 2018 0 comment