Retail Store Tour Highlights Ten Stores to Explore in New York City

Top retailers to visit during NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show

 An epicenter of innovation and best practices, New York City is home to some of the most unique retail experiences in the world. NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show provides the perfect opportunity to learn about these stores firsthand.

“New York sets the standard for experiential retail,” says Daniel Hodges, CEO of Retail Store Tours, which will be hosting curated tours during NRF 2026. Each tour will be expert-led and offered in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Chinese.

“We base our tours on feedback from retailers who tell us, ‘Get me out to see the best stores in New York City,’” Hodges continues. “And what makes these tours unique is their content and the access to senior retail executives in the city.”

Retail Store Tours is the official provider of store tours for the NRF shows in New York, Paris, Singapore, and over fifty other markets around the world. In choosing which stores to highlight, Hodges makes use of Retail Store Tours’ proprietary Intelligent Engagement Index, which evaluates retail establishments according to their use of the human touch, technology, store design, brand story, employee training, change management, unique value proposition, and shopper safety.

These are the ten retailers that Hodges has chosen to feature for the upcoming NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show in New York City:

Printemps
One Wall Street, New York, NY
Since 1865, Printemps Paris has been among the world’s leaders in the retailing of fashion, luxury, and beauty goods. Printemps New York represents the next step in its brand transformation, continuing and accelerating the reinvention of this celebrated French department store. Located in a landmark building in the heart of New York’s vibrant financial district, Printemps New York offers a unique take on the way a local touch can be blended with effortless shopping. While visiting Printemps New York, shoppers can make use of an in-store spa or choose among five different dining experiences under the culinary aegis of Gregory Gourdet. Each showcases an aspect of France’s culinary legacy but with a decidedly New York twist.

Tiffany & Co.—The Landmark
27 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Architect Peter Marino designed the new interiors of The Landmark as part of Tiffany & Co.’s first holistic renovation of its 186-year-old flagship store in nearly a century. The result is ten stories that celebrate the extraordinary in an extraordinary fashion. The new focus is on experiences, from a meal at Daniel Boulud’s Blue Box Café to the Audrey experience, which pays homage both to the iconic film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and to the cultural impact of the house. Installed throughout the store are more than forty works by such prominent artists as Daniel Arsham, Jenny Holzer, and Rashid Johnson, which accent Tiffany & Co.’s own unrivaled craftsmanship.

House of Dior New York
23 East 57th Street, New York, NY
The brand’s most ambitious stateside boutique to date, the House of Dior New York weaves together heritage, craftsmanship, and comfort in a way that feels both expansive and deeply personal. Showcasing an intentionality that’s unique even for luxury retail, each floor of the boutique is arranged into what feels like a series of living rooms—warm, inviting, and intimate. Art installations and sculptural details punctuate the shopper’s journey from women’s leather goods to men’s tailoring to fine jewelry. A spa on the top floor offers facial and body treatments in cocoonlike rooms.

Bergdorf Goodman
754 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Bergdorf Goodman's history is marked by its transformation from a tailor's shop to a premier luxury department store. Founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf, the store has undergone several significant moves and expansions. The first location was on 32nd Street, and it later moved to its current site at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street in 1928. The store has been a destination for American and French fashion, introducing innovative ready-to-wear clothing and attracting interest from the Italian, French, and American fashion industries. Over the years, Bergdorf Goodman has become synonymous with luxury, elegance, and superior service, making it a symbol of refined taste and style.

Crate & Barrel Flatiron
881 Broadway, New York, NY
Sited in a beautifully restored nineteenth-century building that once housed the city’s largest department store, the flagship location of Crate & Barrel occupies massive ground-floor space—flooded with light from tall, street-facing windows that let in the energy of the city. The services offered inside the store likewise draw on that energy. Shoppers can find bestselling items across every home category as well as artisan products such as Smithey cookware, Jono Pandolfi dinnerware, and Apotheke home fragrances inspired by the city’s creative community.

Pottery Barn
12 West 20th Street, New York, NY
Farther down Fifth Avenue, Pottery Barn’s Chelsea store offers a collection of expertly crafted furniture and home accessories as well as  lighting fixtures, rugs, and window treatments. The Pottery Barn brand focuses on bringing casual style to every room in the home.

Harry Potter Store
935 Broadway, New York, NY
The world’s only official Harry Potter retail emporium, the Harry Potter Store provides an immersive experience unlike any other, with fifteen themed areas offering photo opportunities and exclusive products that celebrate the wizarding world. From toys to rare collectibles, it houses the largest collection of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts products under one roof.

Nike House of Innovation NYC
650 Fifth Avenue, New York
Nike created this singular retail location with the intent to inspire athletes around the world. Making use of new systems and new technologies as well as new standards, the Nike House of Innovation NYC provides real-time, expert advice on all things sport and style as well as the Nike By You program, which allows shoppers to customize products using experimental graphics inspired by the Air Max Dn8.

Experiences @ American Dream
1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ
American Dream is among the largest indoor theme parks in the United States. Among the many notable attractions that complement its retail mission are Big Snow and the DreamWorks Water Park. Big Snow is the first and only year-round, indoor, real-snow ski resort. Similarly, the DreamWorks Water Park is the largest indoor water park in North America, featuring the world’s largest indoor wave pool as well as an array of water slides, a multilevel play structure, and luxury cabanas.

Petco Union Square
44 Union Square East, New York, NY
Far beyond all the food, treats, toys, and leashes one would expect to find at any pet store, Petco’s Union Square bilevel flagship offers an array of curated services that complement its retail sales. The store has cat and dog groomers, who offer baths in addition to nail trims and haircuts, as well as dog trainers, who take on the behavioral issues of both puppies and adult dogs. There is even an in-store veterinary hospital that provides routine vaccinations as well as acute care and emergency services.

Retail Store Tours Offerings at NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show
Retail Store Tours has designed each of these five district tours to provide participants with exclusive, firsthand insights into the latest industry innovations and trends. All tours will be led by subject-matter specialists and include interaction with the retail executives responsible for each store’s performance, thus delivering impactful connections and unique experiences at each location. Although these time-efficient walking tours can be booked during Retail’s Big Show, many retailers arrive early to experience one or more of these tours without the pressure of time conflicts.

What Is a Tour?
Each tour is an expert-led, curated, time-efficient look behind the scenes at cutting-edge design, technology, customer engagement, and employee training strategies. They explore what makes top-performing stores tick.

Who Can Benefit from a Tour?
Retailers at all executive and operational levels.

What Will I Learn?
Game-changing insights into the future of retail with a focus on the eight Intelligent Engagement Factors that drive revenue.

1. Technological Evolution & Innovation: American Dream
Held at American Dream and designed for tech and social media savvy retailers, this tour provides a technologically enhanced experience. It focuses on such aspects as smart, integrated digital signage; social media experiences; AR experiences; and revolutionary displays. 

• What Is It? A look at the inner workings of a state-of-the-art experience center
• Who Can Benefit? IT managers, CDOs, CTOs, CMOs
• What Will I Learn? How technology and design drive engagement

2. People-Centric, Purpose-Driven Retail: SoHo
Nowhere are the scale and diversity of retail more pronounced than in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood, known worldwide for its innovative artistry and artfulness. Here, retail is unbound, spilling all over the streets in a kaleidoscope of forms. Side by side with iconic stores are avant-garde pop-ups that won’t be around tomorrow. The randomness is inspirational, and it adds to the neighborhood’s excitement. We’ll show you why SoHo is the place where brands come to reinvent themselves. 

• What Is It? A look at extremely diverse approaches to people-centric business models
• Who Can Benefit? GTM teams
• What Will I Learn? How to create and test business models before bringing them to scale

3. Iconic Retailers: Fifth Avenue
On this tour, we will meet with Fifth Avenue’s best-in-class retailers offering the finest shopping in New York City. For more than a century, these retailers have defined what it means to be glamorous here and around the world. In addition to Tiffany & Co., we will learn from the executives who run such flagship boutiques as Gucci, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bergdorf Goodman.

• What Is It? A look at how iconic brands have been able to thrive for a century and more
• Who Can Benefit? Operations and marketing personnel at the executive level
• What Will I Learn? How these brands have transformed their retail culture without losing their original DNA

4. Innovation and Reinvention: The Flatiron District
The thriving Flatiron District offers the widest range of décor, furniture, and flagship concept stores in the city. Our tour of this district will focus on the design-driven hospitality that distinguishes many of the new business models being tested here.

• What Is It? A look at how retailers cater a wide range of offerings to the particularities of a single neighborhood
• Who Can Benefit? NEED TO ADD HERE
• What Will I Learn? How retailers use new, geographically based products and models to drive consumer engagement

5. The Transformation Tour: Wall Street
In addition to being the center of the global economy, Wall Street is also a birthplace of innovation, and that same searching for new and improved methods has influenced the neighborhood’s retail sector as well. This tour takes participants behind the scenes for an exclusive view of the innovations taking hold in the Financial District’s food, fashion, and luxury destinations.

• What Is It? A look at how Wall Street thinking has promoted new business concepts in the most vibrant retail market in the world
• Who Can Benefit? Merchandise teams and a new way to display product.
• What Will I Learn? How to incorporate out-of-the-box thinking

In addition to the tours described above, NRF 2026 attendees can also make arrangements with Retail Store Tours for customized tours to suit their particular interests and needs. These customized tours can include any of the twelve retailers selected by CEO Daniel Hodges to feature for the NRF 2026, or attendees can choose from a list of more than three hundred notable New York City retailers with which Retail Store Tours has a relationship.

For more information, please email us at hello@retailstoretours.com.