Toy retailer FAO Schwarz is getting ready to welcome customers to its first-ever European flagship store, which will launch November 1 at the Oxford Street location of Selfridges in London. The FAO store will occupy roughly half an acre of space, featuring the retailer’s full collection of toys.
It will also boast some of the wow-inducing in-store experiences made famous at FAO’s New York flagship, including a dance-upon grand piano (pictured) and an FAO Raceway that lets shoppers build remote-control cars with the help of trained “mechanics.”
FAO’s European expansion comes on the heels of a New York comeback. After closing the doors of its famous Fifth Avenue location in 2015, the toy retailer returned to the Big Apple late last year, opening a new flagship store on November 16 in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center that features a Discovery-branded immersive STEM toy shop offering kids a hands-on shopping experience.
FAO is also planning to open a new flagship store in Beijing, China this spring.