Build-a-Bear

Grace is obsessed with pugs. She constantly chatters about them and often starts talking about them to people she just met or random shop assistants. She saw a pug in build-a-bear workshop last week and her face lit up. She LOVES build a bear anyway and has a birthday coming up soon, so we promised her a trip there to get a pug a couple of days before her birthday. As we were at the mall today for a cinema trip, we popped in to see the pugs again, only there weren't any there. We asked an assistant, who said the pugs had been discontinued and they'd sold out. Oh no! Grace's little face! The chap said he would just check, then went to the store room and returned 5-10 minutes later with an ex-display pug. He opened the stitching and took it away to unstuff, whilst Grace chose an outfit for her new pet. When ready, she stuffed the bear and added its heart. The staff then hand-stitched the pug back together as the usual drawstring method only works once and this was a re-stuff. I was really impressed with their helpfulness. They might have tried to hard sell something else or not been bothered with all the extra work involved, but their engagement with Grace was genuine and I honestly think they just wanted to make my little girl happy. They certainly succeeded! "Precious" the pug is now waiting in her box until Grace's birthday which is in just under three weeks' time.