What You Didn't Know: April 2013

Kevin Pena

FAO Schwarz is quite possibly one of the hardest stores to maneuver through. The first floor isn’t too bad. First, you have the entrance with a ton of plush dolls, all kinds! Here you can find a lot of parents and their children and people taking pictures next to the elaborate towers. The thing that confused me was the cashier. It was placed on the far left, where it wasn’t really seen. I didn’t even know it was there until someone pointed it out to me. Following the same floor, if you continue forward, you can find the candy section. There was candy of all kinds, even some from the Harry Potter series. I noticed that the candy, the closer it got to the cashier, the more “adult like” it became. It had more calories, bigger in size, things that children wouldn’t so much eat.

At the end of this candy wonderland was a café geared more towards adults. So as children were getting candy, they could get in line and buy a cupcake. I noticed the people on the lines were mostly adults. Although, there was another exit right by the café and I didn’t really know which one was the entrance or exit. In the middle of the candy area was another cashier but this one was more in your face. The colors here were lighter, pinker, much more happier. The odd thing is, at the end of all of this was a downstairs area for babies. They had more plushies and clothes for little babies. They used a lot of neutral colors down on this floor.

After going through ALLLLLL of this I went ALL the way back just to go on the escalators to get to the second floor. And from the entrance in the candy store, this design would make more sense but from the entrance next to the apple store, it’s just a lot of back and forth. The second floor is where it got confusing. It starts of seeming like it’s for teenagers/and older crowd. There are the Midtown comics and I even saw a Spiderman look a like. This was definitely for the older kids who are close to being teenagers but are not kids anymore. At this point I started to feel as if the age range increased with every floor. The basement was for babies, the first floor was for kids and the last floor was for older kids.

This last floor really took me for a spin. Fist off, there are 3 ways you could walk through when you first get to the second floor. You can go right, towards the dolls, left towards the animal section and then through the middle to another area. I started off with going to the right. Past the midtown comics was the doll area. You could make a doll, buy a doll, look at them, etc. It was clearly more for younger to teenage girls. I even saw a Katniss doll from Hunger Games. Past this is the hello Kitty section. What I found interesting about this section was the fact that they have bags for older women right next to the cashier. I even saw a woman eyeing these pieces as her daughter was looking at the hello kitty stuff.

There was even a spot for “Tween Skin” which was all about preparing your child’s skin from their teenage years. They had acne products, moisturizers, etc. It was like this section gradually became older as it went on. When you take a left at the next area, it turns ALL in the boy’s toys. As if the sections were segregated. Here were more darker, intense colors such as red and blue as opposed to all of the beige and pink you came from. But it was even more frustrating because then you could take another left or continue further. It was quite the maze. I continued further forward towards the other toys. It was lego’s and the grand piano. I couldn’t figure out why legos were so far deep into this place. I really had no idea because this was something that should grab a lot of attention. But after leaving this place a little later, if you’re walking down Park Ave you can see Legos from the window display. Which might get people to come in. Either way, a lot of people were on the piano, having fun and taking photos. Leaving this area, there are more toys for young boys (with very little toys for younger girls). The next section was education based. There was a lot about museums and books and evolution. There was even a gallery to buy paintings from. Although, I think this was more so for older people because I don’t think that kids would want paintings as opposed to toys. A lot of these paintings were also over sexualized.

You can pass all of these books and enter this narrow hall where you can see animal stuffed dolls. And you’re back where you started. BUT I forgot all about the middle section at this point because I went in a circle. So I went to the middle and saw a Dip N’ Dots. You do not know how tempted I was to buy some because of how tired I was. All of these sections merged into this middle section. It was almost as if this place forced you to walk through all of this. On the left side of dip N’ Dots there was an area for “The Beatles” and sweaters you could buy in front of these mirrors. Barely any kids know who The Beatles are so I’m guessing this was mostly for older people. It was conveniently located near the Dip N’ Dots.

It’s hard to pinpoint a strategy for this place. It’s really a headache for me. But I’m guessing since this is such a tourist spot and a place where Parents love to bring their children, FAO Schwarz designed this place to make it so they had to walk everywhere. They segregated the boys and girls section so if the parents had a boy and a girl, they would have to walk throughout this whole place/maze to get through this all. There are barely any signs pointing you in any direction to the exit, so they want for someone to not know where they’re going or how big this place actually is. And in the end, once the parents are tired and the kids are hungry, they have a café, a Dip N’ Dots and a Whole candy section near the exit to replenish lost energy. A lot of the sections are lost because of how these areas are made, especially on the second floor.