Turns out F.A.O. Schwarz (1836-1911), the toy store founder, is from Brooklyn. Maybe that’s why the company that bears his names wants to open a store in Park Slope. Or maybe it’s all the kid$, kid$, kid$.  The New York Times ran this in the City Section on Sunday.

People in the neighborhood
have been buzzing about F. A. O. Schwarz since its chief executive, Ed
Schmults, was quoted this month in Crain’s New York Business about the
company’s expansion plans in the city. According to Mr. Schmults, F. A.
O. Schwarz is considering opening two smaller stores in New York, and
the publication named Park Slope, along with Union Square, as a
possible location.

Mr. Schmults declined to answer questions
about the matter last week, but according to a statement issued by the
store’s public relations office, the company hopes to open one of the
new stores next summer and the other in 2008.

In Park Slope,
where strollers rule the sidewalks, and nannies and young mothers rule
the coffee shops, some parents greeted the idea coldly.

“I’ve
never been an F. A. O. Schwarz fan, so I would say, ‘Don’t bother
coming here,’ ” said Lauren Gropp Lowry, mother of Lila, 11 months, as
she sipped coffee outside the Connecticut Muffin on Seventh Avenue at
First Street.

Ms. Gropp Lowry, who grew up in the neighborhood
and recently moved back from Manhattan, said that in her opinion, Park
Slope was all about smaller stores and personal service. “It’s not a
Park Slope place,” she said of F. A. O. Schwarz, before dashing off to
a mother-and-daughter music class. “The fact that we have a Barnes
& Noble now is a big deal.”

F. A. O. Schwarz, which once
operated 14 stores nationwide, now has just two locations, in New York
and Las Vegas, after a bout with bankruptcy that temporarily closed the
flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan. Mr.
Schmults, who took over as chief executive last year, told Crain’s that
he hoped to streamline the business, making it less a toy-themed
amusement shop and more a profitable enterprise.

At Lolli, a
children’s clothing store in Park Slope on Seventh Avenue, a co-owner,
Meghan Andrade, predicted that an F. A. O. Schwarz store would cut into
her business. “I feel like sometimes when I hear things like that, that
Park Slope is going to lose the charm that it currently has,” she said.
“There’s a loyalty amongst our customer base, so we would maintain some
of that, but people will always explore their options.”