The right stuff: How Build-A-Bear is creating a cuddly (and lucrative) empire

Twenty-five-year-old Alyssa Karpinski estimates she owns between 150 and 160 Build-A-Bears. She has been collecting since she was little, and made her first bear with her dad.

“I remember everything about it,” she said. “I walked into my mom’s place of work at the time, and my mom goes, ‘Oh my God, you’ve just started something. And it’s not going to end.’”

Karpinski is not alone in her pursuit. She belongs to online groups and has an Instagram account dedicated to her collection of Build-A-Bears, Pokémon, Squishmallows and Jellycats with over 1,400 followers…