Store Manager

Our Story So Far

Founded in 1862, FAO Schwarz is one of the oldest and most iconic toy retailers in the world. Frederick August Otto Schwarz dreamed of a marvelous, bountiful emporium full of extraordinary, one-of-a-kind toys from all over the world. His dream became a reality, and as one of America's oldest brands, we have provided this wonder to families for more than 160 years.

The Job

The Store Manager is responsible for driving store performance and building a strong team that delivers an outstanding guest experience. This role is accountable for all daily store operations and takes ownership of the successful execution of all day-to-day merchandising, operations, and service management tasks.

This critical role is instrumental in ensuring that outstanding guest engagement is consistently delivered through the team, providing in-the-moment coaching and feedback and being an active presence on the sales floor to lead by example. The Store Manager embodies a guest-first mentality and is responsible for elevating the guest experience, as well as supporting the Deputy General Manager in both routine tasks and special projects.

Reporting to: Deputy General Manager

What You’ll Do

Guest

• Implement and evolve the store selling vision and constantly evaluate the impact of delivery.
• Promote fantastic product knowledge across the team, identifying opportunities to provide additional resources to more effectively educate our guests.
• Identify opportunities to remove barriers to performance, influencing key partners to get the right outcome for the guest and the team.
• Actively seek guest feedback to understand our performance and opportunities to evolve, escalating this to the Deputy General Manager.
• Demonstrate passion for the guest by being a visible presence on the sales floor and working shoulder-to-shoulder with your team.
• Leverage soft skills to ensure customers feel comfortable and welcome.
• Engage the team to deliver sales and KPI goals and understand how to motivate the team to achieve sales plan.
• Evaluate in-store experiences, reviewing available tools to ensure they evolve as needed to remain unique.
• Monitor the local market and ensure the store experience remains elevated and premium.

Team

• Highlight training needs to develop skills and behaviors within the Leadership and Associate teams.
• Ensure great performance is recognized consistently to drive engagement and foster a culture of positivity and celebration.
• Oversee store schedules in accordance with our trading calendar and labor budget, ensuring the right team members are planned at the right time to support delivering sales and KPI goals.
• Act as a mentor to foster growth and development within the team.
• Be the role model for delivering exceptional coaching and feedback to the team, supporting other leaders to deliver to the same standard.
• Use available resources to ensure the team knows how they are performing and work with in-store partners to fill skill gaps and evolve development practices.
• Connect with your team on a regular basis to understand their needs and how you can support them.
• Collaborate with other store teams to ensure synergy from Back to Front of House.
• Ensure individual touch bases and team meetings are in place across leadership to streamline the flow of communication and deliver feedback outside the annual review cycle.

Store

• Evaluate floor leadership responsibilities across the team, providing feedback and establishing a framework to maintain a world-class guest experience.
• Actively drive omnichannel sales, working with the leadership team to maximize results.
• Learn and understand all experiences on the sales floor.
• Ensure decision-making is rooted in commerciality and what is right for the guest experience.
• Partner with Managers and Leads to drive efficiencies in store operations and take action to evolve best practices.
• Audit loss prevention actions on a weekly basis to reduce overall shrink.
• Audit weekly cash handling processes and record keeping, ensuring cash loss and credit card chargebacks are reduced to a minimum.
• Work with the Facilities, Visuals, and Operations teams to maintain the high standard required of a flagship environment each day.
• Monitor labor spend vs budget and take action to adjust spend based on sales performance.
• Influence merchandising, planograms, and product placement in the store based on sales data and guest feedback.
• Comp shop other retailers and experience-based attractions in New York City to analyze their products, offerings, and services to remain competitive.
• Proactively and regularly connect with in-store vendors and 3^rd party contractors to ensure key communications are being shared and goals are aligned.  
• Consistently review sales data, best sellers, and department reporting to better understand and drive your business.

What You Have

•  5+ years experience in a senior leadership role within a fast-paced premium retail or experience-based environment.
• Bachelor's degree in business or retail management or equivalent work experience.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal ability.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to use commercial reporting to drive decision-making
• Incredible soft skills and an influential leadership style with the ability to adapt to suit a diverse range of people.
• Excellent critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong knowledge of inventory and shrink mitigation.
• Flexible and open full-time availability in line with a Flagship Retail environment across days, evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Capable of lifting up to 25 pounds, and bending, twisting, and standing for long periods of time.

This job description should not be construed to contain every function/responsibility that may be required to be performed by this role. Employees are required to perform other related functions as assigned.  

FAO Schwarz is an equal opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practices laws.   

FAO Schwarz strictly prohibits and does not tolerate discrimination against employees, applicants, interns, or any other covered persons, on the basis of age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin including ancestry, ethnicity, sex including pregnancy, gender identity, and transgender status, gender, physical or mental disability, including gender dysphoria and similar gender-related conditions, alienage or citizenship status, military status, including past, current, or prospective service in the uniformed services, genetic information, predisposing genetic characteristics, marital status, partnership status, domestic violence victim status, familial status, actual or perceived sexual orientation, unemployment status, caregiver status, credit history, salary history, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state and local laws, with respect to hiring, promotion, discipline, firing, compensation, benefits, or other terms, conditions or privileges of employment.   

If you need a reasonable accommodation in the application or hiring process, or during the course of your employment, please contact the Director of Human Resources at HR@fao.com.   

Apply online at faoschwarz.com/pages/careers; Indeed.com; or GetHired.com  

FAO Schwarz is an EEO employer - M/F/Vets/Disabled