“Big” News - TRU Acquires FAO
Monday, June 1st, 2009
By Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst Toys & Video Games
Just last weekend, my 11-year old son had a bunch of his buddies over on Saturday night to hang out and play video games, watch movies, shoot hoops, and engage in an epic Nerf gun battle. A few of the boys’ mom’s hung out with me and we enjoyed an evening sipping wine and exchanging gossip. After a couple hours of complete mayhem, we wanted to settle the boys down so I went to the cupboard and picked out a movie - initially it was hard to pick one I thought they all would like and then my eyes spied one of my all-time favorite movies: “Big.” As I announced to the group, “Okay, I’m putting on “Big,” several of the mom’s chimed in, “Oh I love that movie.”
When I read the news of F.A.O. Schwarz’s acquisition by Toys R Us, I immediately thought back to the movie “Big” and the famous scene where Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia dance on the big piano in F.A.O.’s New York store. Of course the entire movie is about the magic of creating toys and the giddy feeling many of us, even as adults, feel when walking into a toy store. Despite greater competition these days from other product categories like video games and consumer electronics, toys remains one of biggest categories for spending on kids, as outlined in our Spotlight on Kids: Understanding Cross-Category Purchasing report we released about a month ago.
The magic of the destination toy shopping trip continues. While it’s true that today the majority of toy purchases are made in the mass market/discount channel, our newest toy report, Toy Market Dynamics, reveals that the annual spend by households that purchase at toy stores is 15% higher than what the average household spends on toys at a mass market/discount retailer.
Toys remain near and dear to the hearts of young and old alike. I get a little smile on my face even as I’m still finding little Nerf gun darts behind couch cushions and under my dining room table.
Tags: FAO Schwarz, Toys, Toys R Us
Toys | Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst Toys & Video Games | 
June 1, 2009 2:46 pm
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