Build a Bear opens NYC store

I have been watching Build a Bear Workshop (BBW) for almost a year now and they have a very interesting concept. They just opened a new megastore at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 46th Street. The store seems to be doing bang-up business and will probably be their most profitable store.

I have been in Build a Bear before and the idea seems like a winner. The store allows you to make your own plush toy complete with clothing and accessories. So it taps into kids imagination and creativity.

The only problem that the store has is that it cannibalizes business when two stores are too close together. I mean how many hand-designed stuffed bears does a kid need? They only need one store per mall to bring in the cash. Thus their growth is naturally restrained.

Also the business seems very labor intensive because the bears go through a lot of steps to go from the bin that holds their outer covering to the little house like thing that they are sold in. Finally, the workers have to be more caring and patient then some retailers have to be because they deal with little kids the majority of the time. I assume they are paid fairly well or they are studying to be Kindergarten teachers of something.

However there is a growth engine on the horizon. It was mentioned in a Business Week article that a read a couple of months ago. Build a Bear is considering a new concept store called Build a Friend workshop. In this concept they allow kids to design a doll and dress them with various fashions and styles. It would be a great idea if a kid could design a baby doll or maybe a Barbie style doll.

Girls can come in and purchase additional accessories and new styles to dress the dolls that they have created with. In fact they could sell accessories like cars or Dream Houses that could also be customized.

A partnership with Barbie or Bratz would be huge in this case because the girls will not only have a hand in creating and dressing the dolls; they will also get to pick the make and model of her dream car as well. Just making custom doll houses could be a lucrative business that they could get sponsorship money from. This Dream House has a Sub Zero fridge, Price Pfister Faucets, and painted with Behr brand paint. It would be a great way to build brand awareness in kids before they are even old enough to buy the things.

They can also have some kind of action figure design thing for boys. Similar to the Gi Joes with the cloth uniforms that came out in the 60-70s. They can have various uniforms (or civilian togs) that they could wear and different weapons that they could buy. The child can even buy various types of cars that come in different colors, makes, and models. A James Bond style doll would be a big seller I think.

This build a friend idea taps the younger kids with the baby dolls, and the older kids with the Barbie or Bratz style doll. Currently they are only tapping the younger kids with those stuffed animals. The accessories and add-ons revenue stream may be quite lucrative depending on how many are purchased and who they license them from.