Hello from snowy NYC! Just before the city was blanketed in snow, I spent this weekend at Columbia Business School’s Retail and Luxury Goods Conference. I had the pleasure of interviewing Maxine Clark, the founder of Build-A-Bear, alongside the company’s current CEO, Sharon Price John.
Our conversation covered Build-A-Bear’s business in front of this audience of MBAs. Clark essentially invented the category of experiential retail, and she left a high-paying job in retail at Payless to bet on her idea in 1997. Price John came in more than a decade later, with stints at the biggest toymakers on her resume, to help Build-A-Bear shore up its business. Following the 2008 recession, the company was burdened by high real estate costs and struggling to keep up with changing ways of shopping.
I’ve interviewed Price John about Build-A-Bear before, which is a fascinating story on its own—she has taken what was once a purely in-person business and added a valuable e-commerce segment by capitalizing on adults looking for nostalgia moments, something that many children’s brands can tap when they turn 25. It’s a phenomenon she calls “kidulting. And adults are happy to buy their favorite bears online, while kids can still experience the magic of building their own bear in store. Both factors have helped Build-A-Bear become an almost $500 million business.
