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August 20, 1999/8 Elul 5759, Vol. 51, No.46
Store focuses on bear essentials
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Maxine Clark's husband, Robert, allows her to keep only three teddy bears in their bedroom. There are four in the room now, because, she says, "I think another one crept in."
Clark is a kid at heart and, like any kid, she occasionally likes to break the rules.
Which is why she wants the humans who will staff and run her Build a Bear Workshop in Scottsdale's Fashion Square mall to forget the rules they learned from other retailers about working with customers.
"We want people (who work here) to use their good sense, judgment and hearts to make decisions," Clark says.
Clark's employees will be following "The Way of the Bear" when the store opens on Friday, Sept. 3. It's a path that the Scottsdale store's management team studied for three weeks at Bear University at company headquarters in St. Louis. Managers will convey what they learned to their employees at a Bear University they'll re-create here.
Customers will also have some learning to do. Build a Bear Workshop is geared mostly toward kids. Patrons choose, stuff, stitch, fluff, name and dress a teddy bear to take home. Each bear can be outfitted with pre-recorded sound chips that emit giggles, growls, barks, moos and other animal sounds, messages such as "I love you," and songs including "Happy Birthday."
Clark started Build a Bear Workshops in October 1997 in St. Louis, building on her 25 years of retail experience with the May Department Stores Co. The Scottsdale store is the 11th in a chain that includes Chicago, Kansas City, Houston, Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C.
Clark hadn't planned to be an entrepreneur. Born into a Reform Jewish household in Coral Gables, Fla., she grew up in Miami, then attended the University of Georgia, where she majored in journalism and marketing.
"Quite honestly, I thought I was going to be a lawyer," Clark recalls.
A professor suggested that Clark, who confesses to being a consummate shopper, consider retailing. After graduating in 1971, she went to work at the Hecht Co., a division of May Department Stores, in Washington, D.C., then moved to May's corporate headquarters in St. Louis in 1976, and eventually rose to become president of Payless ShoeSource from 1992 to 1996.
Through a series of what she calls "magic moments," she decided that she wanted to go into business for herself in a way that would involve kids, be fun and creative, and allow her to use all of her talents.
"It all sort of landed around teddy bears," she says.
Clark believes that having a teddy bear as a friend and companion can help a child to grow up happier and mentally healthier.
Clark's mother, Ann Kasselman, a social worker who worked with underprivileged children, instilled in Clark a sense of tzedakah (charity) and community involvement, she says. Clark and her husband contribute to St. Louis' Jewish federation campaign and she is a member of Lion of Judah.
Clark says she was so involved in her career that she "never had this burning desire to have children of my own." To ensure that her workshops had plenty of kids' input, she assembled a "board of directors" of 20 kids ages 6 to 14 who "basically tell us what to do on everything."
Despite her success, Clark says she thinks of herself as "the consumer." She has consciously designed her business to reflect what "regular people, what customers have said they want."
She says Build a Bear Workshop is for kids - from 3 to 103 - to be able to come to a place "where best friends are made."
Information about Build a Bear Workshops is available at www.buildabear.com on the Internet.
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