F.A.O. Schwarz closing its flagship store in New York City


Rising rents in midtown Manhattan have claimed another victim: The F.A.O. Schwarz flagship store on Fifth Avenue will close its doors on July 15.
There has been an F.A.O. Schwarz toy store in New York City for the past 145 years; Frederick August Otto Schwarz opened his first store, Schwarz Brothers Importers, in 1870, and the toy paradise was featured in a memorable scene in the 1988 movie Big. At one point, there were 40 locations across the United States, but the Fifth Avenue store is the last one remaining.
Until they find a new place to set up shop in Manhattan — The New York Times reports that the company might be looking at a basement space in an office tower at 1633 Broadway — customers will have to make their purchases online or at F.A.O. Schwarz boutiques inside of Toys "R" Us stores.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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