People wanted to work at bildeber. That was the other you know, they wanted to work in a happy place. The reason i pitched yellow is our paint color is it's the international color that goes along with a happy face. So we could use color as a way to attract people in the door and make the store seem more open. A significant percentage of our customers, now growing, is over over 13, 14 years old. And because we have so much variety of clothes, and we can help, we can almost make anything.
Stuff it, fluff it, stitch it, dress it: Build-a-Bear Founder and former CEO Maxine Clark built a retail-entertainment empire by letting people make their own furry friends. Two hundred million of them. What's the secret to her success? Listen as she tells EconTalk's Russ Roberts how she developed a customer-focused culture, why she sought to join (and not beat) her competition, and about some of the (seriously) strange things people have stuffed into their bears.