A cheap teddy offer which left shoppers with young children queuing for up to eight hours amid chaotic scenes has been abandoned over "safety concerns". Build-A-Bear Workshop was offering UK customers a chance to buy any bear, which can cost up to £52, for the price of their child's age. At Leeds' White Rose Shopping Centre police were called when queues of "about a mile long" formed. The company said the response had been "overwhelming and unprecedented". There have also been reports of long queues in US shopping centres, where the American company was also putting on the same promotion on Thursday. Gemma Butler, marketing director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing, said: "This was an ill thought-out and unprofessional promotional execution, one that not only risks their own brand reputation, but has the potential to bring the wider marketing sector into disrepute."
