Have you heard of Build-A-Bear? Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, I’m pretty sure you have. When it comes to stuffing teddy bears, they are the market leader. The chances are if you have children they have tried to drag you into their shops while you have been walking down your local high street.
Build-A-Bear vs. Non-Stop Kids Entertainment: Thrilling Children's Entertainment in 2023
The quality of their bears are great, they have a large range and offer a lot of accessories. It’s very easy to spend well over £60 on just one beat if you go all out! A lot of people don’t realise they also do birthday party packages. You can take your kids to the shop and have their birthday party there.
Why Is This Important?
You probably also know that Non-Stop Kids Entertainment also offers a Teddy Bear stuffing party. We have partnered up with a company called Teddy Tastic to supply a unique teddy bear stuffing party for parents around the UK. We have combined the high energy style of Non-Stop Kids Entertainment with the superb quality of Teddy Tastic into one amazing package.
We frequently get asked which is the better option for parents, Build-A-Bear or our Teddy Bear Packages? In this blog, we will review both Build-A-Bear and Non-Stop Kids Entertainment and let you know which is best for your child’s party.
Build-A-Bear
Build-A-Bear has hundreds of stores throughout the UK. They are absolutely the market leader, their range of bears they have are nothing short of phenomenal and their staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. They also sell a lot of accessories for the bears once you have purchased them. As you can see, there are a lot of positives. However, when it comes to running a child’s birthday party, there are three major negatives.
The first negative is that Build-A-Bear shops are not designed to host a kids party. They are designed to be a shop that people can visit and buy things from. There are no fixed party rooms. Typically, when Build-A-Bear hosts a kids party, they do it in a sectioned off area of the shop. It makes the party quite impersonal because there are other shoppers present the whole time.
The other problem with this is that the party is over very quickly. The kids arrive and are shown to the sectioned off area of the store. They then play a couple of simple party games with a party host. To conclude, they pick a bear, the staff will stuff the bears and then they leave. It’s impossible for the kids to have party food in the store - there simply isn’t the room and would be too messy for the store to clean. The whole thing is over in less than an hour. From here, you will then either have to take the kids to a nearby restaurant for food or cut the party short without party food. Either option is not ideal.
The second major negative is the staff that work at Build-A-Bear. Of course, they are friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about their work. However, they are simply not trained entertainers, barely party hosts for that matter. As such, the party falls very flat because they don’t know how to entertain the children and make the event an interactive experience. Compare this to a Non-Stop Kids Teddy Tastic Party. There’s magic, Disco, puppets, party games. Even the stuffing of the teddy bears is an interactive experience. There is no comparison to be honest. Both companies operate differently. Don’t overlook the importance of entertainment. Having the right entertainer turns an average party into an amazing one that your kids will never forget. Unfortunately, because the staff at Build-A-Bear are shop workers and not entertainers, the wow factor simply isn’t there.
The final major negative is the cost of running a Build-A-Bear party. The packages range in price from £15 per person through to £37 per person. The £15 package is very basic but even the £37 package runs around an hour with very little entertainment. This means that if you have 10 kids, the cost will range from £150 through to £370. Hypothetically speaking, if you have 20 kids, the cost goes up to anything from £300 to £740.
However, this doesn’t cover the cost of food which at a nearby restaurant can cost you an extra £5 to £10 per child on top. The other consideration is the upsells. Have you ever taken your child to Build-A-Bear? Did you just walk out with a bear? Or did your child convince you that it’s absolutely vital they have the outfit, the shoes and the voice box as well? You end up paying a lot more than you expected.
So, even though Build-A-Bear is a great shop, there are some pretty major flaws as a party destination. Now, let’s compare Build-A-Bear to Non-Stop Kids Entertainment.
Non-Stop Kids Entertainment
Let’s be honest, we have no experience at Building Teddy Bears. That’s why we teamed up with Teddy Tastic. Our childrens entertainer like to feel that we have combined the high quality of their product with our experience as the leading supplier of kids parties in UK.
First of all, let’s get the negatives of booking us out the way. You’ll have to find your own venue. With a Build-A-Bear party, you can use their shop as a venue, however, you will have to hire a hall if you want to book us. Secondly, you will have to cater the party yourself. With a Build-A-Bear party, you’ll probably end up at a restaurant, but with one of our parties you’ll have to make other arrangements. Finally, there is more of a range of bears if you go to Build-A-Bear. Although Teddy Tastic has a very impressive range, it will never match the amount of bears you can choose from when you are holding your party in an actual shop with lots of stock.
Having said all that, we honestly believe that booking a Non-Stop Kids Teddy Bear party is a much better option if you want it to be a unique experience with the WOW Factor. One of the main reasons is that running parties is our speciality! It’s what we do and we do it very well. Our package follows our unique ‘Hassle Free’ party format. It means that the kids are engaged and having fun for the whole two hours. You just feed the kids and hand them their coats on the way out.
The other major consideration is that you will have an entertainer running the party, not a shop worker. They will be on hand to make sure that the kids are having an absolute blast. There is a Disco on arrival. Then a teddy bear themed magic show. Even the bear stuffing experience is entertaining and interactive for the kids. After party food, we play party games, action dances and dance competitions, all designed to fit the theme. We create an experience designed to make memories that will last forever.
With our parties, the children stuff the teddy bears themselves using specially created stuffing bags. Don’t underestimate why this is more special for a child than a shop working stuffing a bear into a machine. With our parties, the magic show combined with the stuffing bags means that the kids really do feel like they have given life to their very own teddy bear. It’s truly magical.
In conclusion, we think that our parties are far superior to Build-A-Bear. Nothing against Build-A-Bear, they are great at what they do. However, parties aren’t their thing and realistically that’s why they come up short in this review. Visit our Teddy Tastic Page if you are interested in booking and watch the video below if you'd like to see a visual representation of our Teddy Tastic Package.
Thanks for reading.
