Build-A-Bear — Local services in Town of Hempstead

I went to this location instead of the one at Queens Center Mall, because the reviews for that place are even worse. I give three stars because to me 3 stars = okay/ satisfactory. It was an okay experience. The employees working on 5/30 at around 4pm did not seem like they enjoyed their jobs, which is understandable that you might not want to be at work, but you’re working with kids. Kids love excitement, smiles, giddiness, silliness. You could be totally weird or sarcastic, but as long as you throw in a smile or sarcastic giggle, kids will love you! That’s all it takes. Upon walking in, I felt awkward and unwanted. There was a strange vibe in the air. No one greeted us or helped us out the entire time we were there. We had to get in line at the stuffing machine after grabbing our birthday bear and walking around since literally no one was helping us. I understand if there’s not enough employees, but that doesn’t mean that customers you can’t help shouldn’t be greeted or at least acknowledged. There’s a way to do it. A woman who seemed like the manager yelled at everyone to get in the proper line for the stuffing machine, when that would have not been an issue had customers been acknowledged, spoken to, helped and if in general there was better management of a store with 2-3 employees. Customers started talking to each and everyone felt out of place and like they shouldn’t be there. I came for my child’s birthday, and good thing they’re still really young and not able to pick up on peoples attitudes or weird vibes. The birthday bear plus a $6 shirt and a box(yup, gotta pay for the white house boxes now!) came out to $10, so that was...

Me and my best friend wanted to make bears for each other before we went to college so we decided to go to the build a bear in the mall. The door was half way open and there were about 8 costumers so we went to go in, as i went to the push the door a worker shook her head and waved me away. Confused, we stepped back and waited for her to come to the door. Instead of asking us to wait or telling us anything she closes the door in our faces and says nothing. So we decide to wait. A family of 4 walk out and hold the door for us to go in, she then tells the family to not let us in with no explanation. Me and my friend are now confused because this lady is not letting us in. More people start leaving and she still wont let us in. We then watch her talking to another worker, she takes off her masks and it looks like as is she is yelling or lecturing her about something. We couldn’t hear but it looked as if she was yelling at the other worker. She then comes to the door with her headphones in and says “we are closed for cleaning so you cannot come in. And i told u guys this and its going to take 40 min” . I tell her that she did not tell us that and had us waiting for no reason. She then says “i did tell you, so you should leave”. She was rude to us the whole time and had no type of courtesy to her customers or fellow workers. Ive never heard of a store in a mall closing for cleaning in the middle of the day. I understand the circumstances with covid19 but the way it was brought to us was unacceptable. I dont know who this lady is but i will never go...

I recently took my 8 year old niece for her birthday and the fun started the moment we walked in the door! Granted she was wearing a birthday crown full of bling, a birthday girl pin on her shirt, and I myself had a big goofy birthday hat on so we were kinda hard to miss! She was greeted with a big "happy birthday" and the first associate we met stopped what she was doing to make her a sticker with her name. Then Chris helped us through the whole process, showing my niece all her options. She even left to go find a bear my niece thought she may have wanted but had none left by the display, yet Chris looked around and found one for her! In the end, she went with a different one but I still thought that was so thoughtful while she could have just said sorry we're out! Chris was so patient with my niece as she smelled all the possible smells and helped her with the foot pedal to stuff her tiger pillow! And the routine she went though with the heart, having her rub it on her face, her heart, her belly, making a wish and kissing it before stuffing it in was just so endearing! Chris may have to do this a hundred times a day but she acted with enthusiasm to make this event so special for my niece! She proceeded to give it a bath, type up a birth certificate, and she walked out with such pride over what she had just created, hugging it throughout the mall and the...