Pay is abysmal, especially considering that they make you go through an "evaluation period" in which they closely monitor you for the first 90 or so days after employment and decide whether or not they would like to continue working with you or not, as if this is some rigorous full time position, when it is only part time for $8/hr which is just a little bit above minimum wage. They do not treat bear builders well, as you are heavily pressured to sell useless scents, sounds and heartbeats to customers which are overpriced and stop working within days to weeks of purchase. It often makes parents upset when their kids start crying or throwing a tantrum after they are shown these items, which pretty much forces the parent to buy the add on, and makes for unhappy customers at checkout when they see they are being charged $50+ for a stuffed animal. When customers leave bad reviews in the surveys they are given on the receipt, bear builders will take the blame. I was told that they do not tolerate less than 90% on the surveys and basically told it was my fault that we received less during one month. I was targeted for the rest of the time I worked there and threatened to be fired on multiple occasions until I submitted my 2 week notice, after which they started treating me better. They also have "on call" shifts where you are required to call them an hour before the shift starts to see if they need you. If they say yes, you have to leave immediately, especially if you live far away, in order to arrive on time and you can't make any other plans that day regardless of whether or not they say yes or no. I had times where they would tell me no, after which I would go somewhere else thinking that I had no work that day, only for them to call me up again 10 minutes later and say that they did need me and I was expected to go in.
