Merchandise Sourcing and Inventory Management Employees  Competition Distribution and Logistics Intellectual Property and Trademarks  2013 FORM 10-K 5 BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP, INC.  Our retail stores offer an extensive and coordinated selection of  merchandise, including over 30 different styles of animals to be  stuffed, sounds and scents that can be added to the stuffed animals  and a wide variety of clothing, shoes and accessories, as well as other  brand appropriate toy and novelty items. We believe we comply with  governmental toy safety requirements specific to each country where we have stores.  and Europe, merchandise is shipped by a variety of distribution  methods, depending on the store and seasonal inventory demand. Key delivery methods are direct trucks through third-party pool  points, “LTL’ (less-than truck load) deliveries, and direct parcel  deliveries. Shipments from our third-party distribution centers are  scheduled throughout the week in order to smooth workflow and  stores that are part of the same shipping route are grouped together  to reduce freight costs. All items in our assortment are eligible for  distribution, depending on allocation and fulfillment requirements,  and we typically distribute merchandise and supplies to each store  once a week on a regular schedule, which allows us to consolidate  shipments in order to reduce distribution and shipping costs. Back- up supplies, such as Cub Condo ®  carrying cases and stuffing for the  animals, are often stored in limited amounts at local pool points. As of December 28, 2013, we had approximately 900 full-time and  3,300 part-time employees in the United States, Canada, the United  Kingdom and Ireland. The number of part-time employees at all  locations fluctuates depending on our seasonal needs. None of our  employees are represented by a labor union, and we believe our  relationship with our employees is good. Our stuffed animal skins and clothing are produced from high  quality man-made materials or natural fibers such as cotton, and the  stuffing is made of a high-grade polyester fiber. We believe all of our  products in our stores and online at buildabear.com meet Consumer  Product Safety Commission requirements including the Consumer  Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) for Children’s Products.  We also comply with American Society for Testing and Materials  (ASTM), EN71 (European standards) and Canadian specifications for  toy safety in all material respects. Our products are tested through  independent third-party testing labs for compliance with toy safety  standards. Packaging and labels for each product indicate to our  guests the age grading for the product and any special warnings in  accordance with guidelines established by the Consumer Product  Safety Commission. We believe that our supplier factories are  compliant with the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI)  CARE certification or with other third party social compliance  programs. The CARE (Caring, Awareness, Responsible, Ethical)  process is the ICTI program to promote ethical manufacturing in the  form of fair labor treatment, as well as employee health and safety  in the toy industry supply chain worldwide. In order to obtain this  certification, each factory completed a rigorous evaluation performed  by an accredited ICTI agent. We view the Build-A-Bear Workshop store experience as a distinctive  combination of entertainment and retail with limited direct  competition. Because our signature product is a stuffed animal, we  compete with toy retailers, such as Wal-Mart, Toys “R” Us, Target,  Kmart and other discount chains. Since we develop proprietary  products, we also compete indirectly with a number of companies  that sell stuffed animals in the United States, including, but not  limited to, Ty, Fisher Price, Mattel, Ganz, Applause, Boyd’s, Hasbro,  Commonwealth, Gund and Vermont Teddy Bear. Since we sell a  product that integrates merchandise and experience, we also view  our competition as any company that competes for family time and  entertainment dollars, such as movie theaters, amusement parks  and arcades, other mall-based entertainment venues and online  entertainment. Being a mall-based retailer, we also compete with  other mall-based retailers for prime mall locations, including various  apparel, footwear and specialty retailers. The average time from product conception to the arrival of the  products into our stores is approximately twelve months, including  approximately 90 to 120 days from the beginning of production to  in-store delivery. Through an ongoing analysis of selling trends, we  regularly update our product assortment by increasing quantities  of productive styles and eliminating less productive items. Our  relationships with our vendors generally are on a purchase order  basis and do not provide a contractual obligation to provide adequate  supply or acceptable pricing on a long-term basis. We are aware of several small companies that operate “make  your own” teddy bear and stuffed animal stores or kiosks in retail  locations, but we believe none of those companies offer the breadth  and depth of the Build-A-Bear Workshop experience or operate as a  national or international retail company. We own our 350,000 square-foot distribution center near Columbus,  Ohio which serves the majority of our stores in the United States and  Canada. We also contract with a third-party warehouse in southern  California to service our West Coast stores. The contract has a one  year term and is renewable. In Europe, we contract with a third-party  distribution center in Selby, England under an agreement that ends  in December 2014. This agreement contains clauses that allow for  termination if certain performance criteria are not met.  We believe our copyrights, service marks, trademarks, trade secrets,  patents and similar intellectual property are critical to our success,  and we intend, directly or indirectly, to maintain and protect these  marks and, where applicable, license the intellectual property and  the registrations for the intellectual property. Our patents have  expirations ranging from 2014 to 2020.  Transportation from the warehouses to the stores is managed by  several third-party logistics providers. In the United States, Canada 