Toys R Us to buy FAO Schwarz. The venerable toy retailer and backstop for Apple’s flagship store has been owned by investment firm D.E. Shaw since filing for bankruptcy a few years ago. As part of the deal, TRU is expected to swap its Times Square ferris wheel for FAO’s giant piano keyboard. [Bloomberg]
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So are the going to keep the FAO Schwartz name, the link to the WSJ has the article cut off.
@I Love New Jersey: WSJ link replaced with link to free Bloomberg report.
@I Love New Jersey: Here is a link [newsfeedresearcher.com] to a summary of various press blurbs on the story. Basically, the two current FAO stores (NYC and Vegas) will keep that name, and TRU will continue to operate the FAO web and catalog businesses under that name.
@I Love New Jersey: Yes, they will keep the name, but the R in Schwarz will now be written backwards.
Well I think this must be a sign of the Apocalypse. What’s next – Walmart buys out Bloomingdales?
@Harry Pothead: Yes, and JC Penney buys out Tiffany.
FAO Schwarz just sold its soul.
@Shoelace: Nah, FAO already sold out a few years ago when the investment firm bought it. The big store on 59th was gutted of a lot of its charm and streamlined. It’s more like just a large-size generic toy store now, except for the giant stuffed animals and the Muppet store. (Which admittedly is very very cool.)
@Chris Walters: *sob*
The sound you are hearing is the tinkle-tinkle-tinkle of my broken man-child heart hitting my tiled floor.
Swear to the gods, if Toy’s “R” Us touches a damned thing in FAO Schwarz’s store, I’m taking a sledgehammer to Jeffrey’s bulbous kneecaps.
@Trai_Dep: the giraffe spells his name Geoffrey.
@gStein: Shoulda known. Cheezus, they can’t even write “R”s correctly.
@Trai_Dep: The internet. Have you heard of it?
That’s where people who don’t attach emotions to retail stores buy toys.
@illtron: Have you been to FAO? It’s a magical place – you’re missing out until you have.
@Trai_Dep: @Trai_Dep: I think I might owe Geoffrey for my job. I was working at a Career Fair monitoring the drink table and looking just as miserable as the job was when someone dressed in the Geoffrey costume saw me and starting walking over to assault me with his arms spread like he wanted a hug. The Geoffrey costume is ridiculously tall and offers poor poor vision to the person inside so he didn’t see the drink cart parked right in his way. He walks straight into the drink cart making a loud crash as top-heavy Geoffrey takes himself, me, the drink cart and dozens of innocent sodas down in the process. A year later and I’m not totally sure why, but somehow I started telling this story at an interview I had, which I thought was going poorly.. it must have shown off my charming personality or they deemed me crazy enough to do anything, so I was hired. The End.
That is so sad. Will the FAO store now have dirty concrete floors, broken shopping carts and sell diapers?
I am still mad they shut the FAO store at the Mall of America.
@bohemian: Don’t get me started on Camp Snoopy.
Well done, TRU. In the middle of the worst recession in decades, you’ve acquired a store that sells the most overpriced toys on the planet.
FAO Schwartz + Toys R Us = F U Toys?
(Ab)use the Schwartz!
See.. I’ve BEEN to the FAO schwarz store in NYC. The keyboard is no where near “huge” (its one octave- that’s right only 12 keys) and half of it was broken.