Famed toy emporium FAO Schwarz, a household name for its aisles crammed with games and pricey playthings, closed its doors yesterday, a casualty of New York's skyrocketing property prices.
New Yorkers and tourists hurried to make a final buy at the Fifth Avenue store immortalised in films such as 1988's "Big," when Tom Hanks played a piano on its floor with his feet.
FAO Schwarz's owner Toys "R" Us announced in May that it would close the more than 100-year-old store due to "continuing rising cost of operating a retail location on Fifth Avenue in New York City."
But it maintains that the closure is not necessarily permanent - FAO Schwarz could open at an unspecified date elsewhere in Manhattan, the company said.
Much of the store's 4,000 square metres of merchandise was on sale, with some aisles nearly empty.
A large, well-placed sign outside the shop said that FAO Schwarz has moved several times since it first opened in Manhattan in 1870. It reminded shoppers that it looked forward to welcoming them in the future at a new address.
German immigrant Frederick August Otto Schwarz opened the first FAO Schwarz on Broadway under the name "Schwarz Brothers Importers."
A second store followed six years later, and the two eventually merged under the FAO Schwarz name at a location on New York's Union Square. The Fifth Avenue store opened in its current location in 1986.
FAO Schwarz claims to be the oldest toy store in the US. It was bought by Toys "R" Us in 2009.
