FAO Schwarz is an American toy

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

and

retail chain A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, Management, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate many retail markets, dining markets, and service categories ...

. The company is known for its high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals,

interactive Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but mo ...

experiences, brand integrations, and games. FAO Schwarz claims to be the oldest toy retailer in the United States, founded by its namesake, Frederick August Otto Schwarz, in 1862 in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

before moving to New York City, where it has moved between several locations since 1870. The ''dance-on piano'', made famous by the 1988

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

film ''Big'', brought international attention to the brand. FAO filed for bankruptcy twice in 2003 before temporarily shuttering the Fifth Avenue location in January 2004. In May 2009, Toys "R" Us Inc. acquired FAO Schwarz, but in 2015, it closed the Fifth Avenue location for good. ThreeSixty Group then acquired the brand, who opened the new FAO Schwarz location at 30

Rockefeller Plaza Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

in November 2018. In 2019, ThreeSixty opened locations in

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Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. The "FAO Schwarz" brandname and trademarks are owned by the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation and exclusively licensed to the ThreeSixty Group who own and operate the retail locations.

History

Early history

FAO Schwarz was founded in 1862 in Baltimore under the name "Toy Bazaar" by German immigrant Frederick August Otto Schwarz. In 1870, Schwarz opened a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

location known as the "Schwarz Toy Bazaar" at 765 Broadway, which moved to 42 E. 14th Street in Union Square in 1880 and operated at that location until April 28, 1897, when it took over two vacant store locations at 39 and 41 W. 23rd Street. That year, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' declared Schwarz as "the largest dealer in toys in this city." Beginning in November 1869, the Schwarz Toy Bazaar held an exhibition of toys that would be available for the Christmas season. In 1896, Schwarz proclaimed the store as the "Original Santa Claus Headquarters" in New York. The FAO Schwarz holiday catalog has been published annually since 1876. In 1931, the New York City location moved to 745 Fifth Avenue, where it operated for 55 years. In 1963, ''Parent's'' Magazine Enterprises purchased FAO Schwarz. The terms of the deal read that it would license the name FAO Schwarz and continue using it for a maximum of five years before dropping the name, while still paying the Schwarz family a royalty on sales. However, the lease was renewed as the owners felt the name was too significant to lose. Part of the price of keeping the name was to keep the royalty agreement, and the Schwarz family set up a foundation to fund opportunities for young people to work in nonprofit with the income the royalties were making. Nine percent of the company remained in the hands of the Schwarz family. The company subsequently sold to W.R. Grace in 1970, and then to toy retailer Franz Carl Weber of Zurich, Switzerland, in 1974. FAO Schwarz Front

In 1985, Christiana Companies, a company based in San Diego, California, owned FAO Schwarz for one year. In 1986, Peter Harris, with the help of Philadelphia investment banker Peter Morse, bought the company under Morse Partners Ltd. and moved the toy store across 58th Street to the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue at 58th Street. FAO Schwarz was sold to Netherlands-based NV Koninklijke Bijenkorf Beheer (later renamed Royal Vendex/KBB NV) in 1990. Throughout the 1990s, new FAO Schwarz stores opened across the United States; by 2000, the company had 40 locations.

Right Start, FAO Inc. and bankruptcy

In 2001, the Calabasas-based toy retailer Right Start, Inc. purchased 23 of the 40 stores, including the Fifth Avenue flagship store, from Royal Vendex for somewhere between $50 million and $60 million. In 2002, Right Start Inc. changed its corporate name to FAO Inc. operating stores under The Right Start, Zany Brainy and FAO Schwarz names. On December 17, the company projected they would file for bankruptcy if its bank did not relax borrowing restrictions. On January 13, 2003, FAO Inc. filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

, but emerged from it three months later in April. The company filed for bankruptcy a second time in December 2003. All 13 remaining FAO Schwarz locations closed in January 2004 as a result of the bankruptcy, with the flagship Fifth Avenue store expected to reopen in July of that year but the others closing for good. The Fifth Avenue store reopened several months later than planned on Thanksgiving Day 2004, redesigned and renovated to accommodate a growing number of tourists, and the Las Vegas location at The Forum Shops at Caesars ultimately remained open until 2010.

D. E. Shaw & Co.

In February 2004, investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P., acquired the FAO Schwarz stores in New York and Las Vegas, as well as FAO Schwarz's catalog and internet business. The

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

stores reopened on

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

Day 2004. In November 2007, FAO Schwarz acquired premium children's clothing company Best & Co., which had plans to expand, but the company ceased business in 2009.

Toys "R" Us, Inc.

In May 2009, Toys "R" Us Inc. acquired FAO Schwarz. In 2009, Toys "R" Us subsequently put temporary FAO Schwarz boutiques in its U.S. Toys "R" Us stores for the holidays, and in October 2010, the concept was expanded into permanent boutiques in Toys "R" Us stores. In addition, FAO Schwarz-branded infant and toddler items are available in all of its Babies "R" Us stores nationwide. The company closed the Las Vegas location in January 2010, followed by its previous flagship New York store. Officer of the Day opens FAO Schwarz jeh

Officer of the Day opens FAO Schwarz jeh

ThreeSixty Group

In October 2016, ThreeSixty Group, Inc. acquired FAO Schwarz from Toys ‘R’ Us, Inc. The FAO Schwarz brand is currently the property of the descendants of the founder through the FAO Schwarz Family Foundation but is exclusively operated by ThreeSixty Group. In August 2018, ThreeSixty Group announced plans to open two new FAO Schwarz stores in New York. The one at

30 Rockefeller Plaza 30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. Completed in 1933 ...

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commerce, commercial buildings covering between 48th Street (Manhattan), 48th Street and 51st Street (Manhattan), 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14 original Art De ...

opened on November 16, 2018. The store features live toy demonstrations and carries many toys that are hard to find in the United States such as

BRIO Brio (stylized BRIO) is a wooden toy company founded in Sweden. The company was founded in the small town of Boalt, Scania, Götaland in 1884 by Basket making, basket maker Ivar Bengtsson. For a long time the company was based in Osby, Scania, in ...

. Public transit access is available at 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station. The second opened at

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport ( ) – colloquially known as LaGuardia or simply LGA – is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City, situated on the North Shore (Long Island), northwestern shore of Long Island, bord ...

in December 2018. In October 2018, FAO Schwarz pop-up stores opened at 90

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

stores across Canada, just ahead of the Christmas holiday season, to remain open through the holidays. In March 2019, a store opened at

Midway International Airport Chicago Midway International Airport is a major commercial airport on the southwest side of Chicago, Illinois, located approximately 12 miles (19 km) from the city's Loop business district, and divided between the city's Clearing and ...

. Also in 2019, an F.A.O. Schwartz shop opened in Arnotts department store in Ireland, replacing its original toy shop. In November 2021, a store opened in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. In spring 2024, a new location opened in Paris at

Galeries Lafayette Galeries Lafayette () is an upmarket French department store chain, the biggest in Europe. Its flagship store is on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris but it now operates a number of locations in France and other countries ...

Haussmann department store.

Brand

FAO Schwarz is known for its large assortment of plush animals and the Piano Dance Mat, a smaller replica of The Walking Piano featured in the Tom Hanks film ''

Big Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * Big (film), ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * ''Big!'', a ...

''. FAO Schwarz also features limited-quantity luxury items including a drivable, child-size automobile encrusted with over 40,000 crystals and valued at US$25,000. In addition to its own line of products, FAO Schwarz carries brands including Steiff, the world's oldest (founded 1880) German designer of stuffed animals;

Melissa & Doug Melissa & Doug, LLC (formerly Lights, Camera, Interaction!, Inc) is an American manufacturer of children's toys, including wooden puzzles, arts & crafts products, plush toys, and other educational toys;Build-A-Bear Workshop Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is an American retailer headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri that sells teddy bears, stuffed animals, and characters. During store visits, customers go through an interactive process where the stuffed animal of their ...

, a make-your-own experience featuring a selection of exclusive FAO Schwarz stuffed animals and accessories, among other in-store retail partners. When ''Kinectimals: Now with Bears!'' was released, the brand also released an exclusive teddy bear plush with a scan tag.

Logo

Through the years, the FAO Schwarz logo has had versions that included a

teddy bear A teddy bear, or simply a teddy, is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. The teddy bear was named by Morris Michtom after the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt; it was developed apparently simultaneously in the first deca ...

toy block Toy blocks (also building bricks, building blocks, or simply blocks) are wooden, plastic, or foam pieces of various shapes (cube, cylinder, arch etc.) and colors that are used as construction toys. Sometimes, toy blocks depict letters of the al ...

s, a

toy soldier A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier. The term applies to depictions of uniformed military personnel from all eras, and includes knights, cowboys, Native Americans in the United States, American Indians, pirates, samu ...

rocking horse __NOTOC__ A rocking horse is a child's toy, usually shaped like a horse and mounted on rockers similar to a rocking chair. There are two sorts, the one where the horse part sits rigidly attached to a pair of curved rockers that are in contact wit ...

and an animated

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

. In 2010, the FAO Schwarz logo was redesigned in colors of red and silver. The new logo emphasized the initials of company founder, Frederick August Otto Schwarz. It also debuted a company mascot, Wit. In 2017, FAO Schwarz hired design studio, Mattson Creative, to rebrand the FAO Schwarz logo and packaging. Mattson Creative also created the store's reopening tagline and

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

, "Return to Wonder".

In popular culture

In the 1972 short story " The Lesson", the store is cast as an instance of immense wealth disparity between classes to a group of poor children. The New York store is featured in the 1988

film ''

'', in which Hanks and

Robert Loggia Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...

dance " Heart & Soul" and " Chopsticks" on the store's large dance-on piano. The store's interior was the inspiration for the fictional "Duncan's Toy Chest" featured in the 1992 film '' Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.'' The store is featured in Woody Allen's 1995 film ''

Mighty Aphrodite ''Mighty Aphrodite'' is a 1995 American comedy film written, directed by, and co-starring Woody Allen, alongside Mira Sorvino, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Rapaport, and F. Murray Abraham. The screenplay was vaguely inspired by the story of ' ...

'' in the final scene where main characters Lenny and Linda have a chance encounter. It is also featured in ''

Baby Boom A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of births. This demography, demographic phenomenon is usually an ascribed characteristic within the population of a specific nationality, nation or culture. Baby booms are caused by various ...

'' (1987) and ''

Big Business Big business involves large-scale corporate-controlled financial or business activities. As a term, it describes activities that run from "huge transactions" to the more general "doing big things". In corporate jargon, the concept is commonly ...

'' (1988), among others. In the 1999 remake of the musical film '' Annie'', during the song "NYC", the characters Oliver Warbucks, Grace, and Annie join a crowd of people all admiring an impressive Christmas-themed window display containing a sign that reads "F.A.O. Schwarz". In the 2010 film ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The third installment in the Toy Story (franchise), ''Toy Story'' series, it was directed by Lee Unkrich, the editor ...

'', when Buzz Lightyear is captured, Lots-o-Huggin' Bear unties him and indirectly references FAO Schwarz in a euphemism: "Oh F-A-O my Schwarz". The store is featured in the 2011 film ''

The Smurfs ''The Smurfs'' (; ) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest. ''The Smurfs'' was created and introduced as a series of comic characters by ...

'' during a chase scene. Scenes from the movie were shot over five nights in May 2011. In the 2019 episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'', " Crystal Blue-Haired Persuasion", a healing crystal shop is named "FAO Quartz". In the 2021 series '' Hawkeye'', the climax of the battle between Kate Bishop and Wilson Fisk occurs in the 30 Rockefeller Plaza location. The actual name of the shop is obscured. One shot features Bishop standing on the dance-on piano.

References

External links

FAO Schwarz WebsiteArticle on Right Start's acquisition of FAO Schwarz.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fao Schwarz 1862 establishments in Maryland 1860s in Baltimore American companies established in 1862 Retail companies established in 1862 American companies established in 2018 Retail companies established in 2018 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003 2018 establishments in New York City 2010s in Manhattan 2009 mergers and acquisitions 2016 mergers and acquisitions Toys "R" Us Companies based in New York City Toy brands Shops in New York City Private equity portfolio companies Toy retailers of the United States Tourist attractions in Manhattan Re-established companies Rockefeller Center