156 Years: The Persistence of F.A.O. Schwarz

Above an unlit Rockefeller Christmas tree shrouded in scaffolding, a fireworks display erupts in red, green, and white splendor. Underneath is a line two blocks long, its eager participants sharing one destination: America’s oldest toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz.

At the entrance stands employees in their iconic nutcracker garb, excitedly motioning in small groups of customers at a time. With sparkling eyes and liberal high-fives, their excitement lives on in the first few steps taken into the store – a world of life-sized stuffed animals, a child-sized grocery store, and a larger-than-life clock.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for the change in clock design!

The excitement is more than holiday cheer. This is what the first week of F.A.O. Schwarz’s reopening after three years of closure looks like.

If you’re unfamiliar with this particular titan in toy making, here are the basics:

While they’re most well-known for their previous Fifth Avenue location in Manhattan, F.A.O. Schwarz first opened in Baltimore in 1862, originally named the “Toy Bazaar.” Although the brand was owned by a German immigrant named Frederick August Otto Schwarz, the company was run by him and his brothers. In its early history, the three split the business to run numerous locations. First, these were all within the Baltimore area, but at one point there were three stores running simultaneously in Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

Besides being a really, really old toy store, the next thing F.A.O. Schwarz is most well-known for are their prices. They’re the place you go for birthday gifts (but only the biggest dates) and holiday presents, especially with lavish options like an $800 teddy bear and a $200 train set. Throughout those 156 years of business, they’ve received press about those prices more than once, with a whole list even being made ranking their most expensive items historically. With prices like those, it’s no surprise that there’s no option to sort search results from highest to lowest or vice versa when browsing for toys on their website.

Despite their long years of business, prime New York City location, and high prices, they’ve gotten into financial trouble more than once. They’ve had seven owners, three bankruptcies, and have changed locations 13 times. While they had shut their doors for a few months at a time in the past, in 2015 news media and financial experts predicted it might be their last. Struggling with their own declining sales, Toys “R” Us closed their Las Vegas locations in 2010, and then their longest running New York flagship store in 2015.

Not enough people are talking about the fact that their Vegas storefront featured a giant trojan horse.

Like the supposed death of print novels, there are some things which just stick. Classic children’s toys seem to fall into that category, because despite:

- Their store being burned in the Great Fire of Baltimore in 1904

- Filing for bankruptcy twice in their history

- Passing between seven different parent companies, one of which owned them for only one year

Moving location 13 different times

F.A.O. Schwarz has continued to persist.

Today, you can do many of the same things you could at their Fifth Avenue location. If you’re around the Manhattan area for the holidays – stop in to have a run on a giant piano, view in-store performances, and take as many photos as you please with the giant teddy bear.