Bunnies Around The World
The Bunnies By The Bay Leadership Team is giving Glad Dreams all over the world. You have never met a more incredible group of women. These four women, all so different in personality and talent, have come together and achieved what others believed to be impossible.
Bunnies By The Bay shops are now in all of the Flagship FAO Schwarz stores around the world. They give credit to many wonderful people and employees along the way and are incredibly fortunate to work with the fantastic team at ThreeSixty, but it is their dedication, passion, and perseverance that has brought Bunnies By The Bay to this point.
This week they had the privilege of opening within the new FAO Schwarz at the iconic Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London. Our third collaboration with FAO Schwarz thus far, with a fourth opening in Arnotts in Dublin, Ireland next week.
In November of 2018 we were thrilled to be a part of the return of the FAO Schwarz when opening at 30 Rock in New York City, and again in Beijing, China in May 2019. Our partnership with ThreeSixty group under the FAO Schwarz brand has been absolutely amazing, and we are so grateful for this opportunity to share a little bit of our very own Cricket Island and bring more “Glad Dreams” to people all over the world as part of the FAO Schwarz global expansion model.
In an article for Yahoo! Finance, Martyn Stroud, director of home and toys at Selfridges, said:
“FAO Schwarz is the premier global brand in toys and today it is certainly the most dynamic experience and customer-driven within its field. We are thrilled to bring the wonder, excitement, and passion for toys at the heart of FAO Schwarz and offer them to our customers.”
- By Josie Clarke, Yahoo! Finance
We at Bunnies By The Bay are thrilled to be a part of the FAO Offering. It has been a true story of dedication and devotion as we partnered with ThreeSixty and their vision to bring experiential shopping back to an era that is largely e-commerce driven and appreciate all that they have done to provide customers with an experience like no other.
“ThreeSixty brought FAO back to New York in the fall of 2018, with a new store in Rockefeller Plaza. It opened a Beijing store in May.
The two new stores in London and Dublin follow the FAO model for international expansion…Selfridges and Arnotts were looking to dramatically expand, and improve their toy departments, and FAO was looking for new homes in Europe, making the partnerships a perfect fit, said Jan-Eric Kloth, chief operating officer of ThreeSixty Group, which owns the FAO brand, in a phone interview from London….The London and Dublin stores, and all future international flagships will have the four key trademarks of the New York store – the dance-on piano, the clock tower, the rocket ship, and the greeters dressed as toy soldiers. “But every store will put their own local spin on those signature features, Kloth said.
“We really want every store to have its own character,” Kloth said. “The overall design theme is the same but it will feel very different when you’re inside compared to the U.S. store.”
With the collaboration, we bring our own version of experiential shopping meant specifically for the “wee ones” as we call them, and for those young at heart. Our FAO flagship store locations feature attractions like our signature “Bunny Hutch” , a playhouse modeled after Gram’s house that inspired the characters of Cricket Island, giving a glimpse into the world of creation with a bunny sewing the treasures we love so dearly in the faux window. Another feature is our iconic boat and ship’s wheel, where little ones can be at the helm and captain their ship into a sea of adventure in Good Friend's Bay, and ring the bell arriving at one of the many neighborhoods that feature our cherished friends. We too will offer a unique experience in each one of our FAO locations and hope that it will be enjoyed for all who come to visit.
Beyond the logistics, the leadership team has been "boots on the ground" at each one of these openings, making sure that every detail is perfect. They have put each product on the shelf to make sure it is just right and positioned each feature to make sure that everyone that comes to the iconic toy store has a sense of reprieve from what can be a busy life as they enter the world of Cricket Island. It has been said that you can physically see the stress melt away, shoulders once tense drop to a relaxed position and a smile appears on the faces of young and old alike as they experience the softness of their surroundings in both touch and sight. There is a pure delight in a little one's eye as they choose the most perfect stuffed animal, lovey or doll and hug it close to their body. This is what we call "Glad Dreams". This is what keeps them motivated when the hours are long, giving "Glad Dreams" isn't merely a saying, it is the mission behind all that they do.
We are thrilled to partner with FAO Schwarz to bring the experience of Cricket Island to their stores, and allow us to give more Glad Dreams all over the world. We hope that you will join us to shop at our new FAO locations this holiday season. And if you happen to see one of our four special leader bunnies, please congratulate them on a job well done, for they deserve more credit and thanks than we could possibly provide.