Ten Must-See New York City Stores
The top retailers to visit during NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show
The NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show offers a chance to peek into the future as it’s being created in one of the world’s great retail centers: New York City. Daniel Hodges, CEO of Retail Store Tours, has selected ten stores for just such a look at the innovations driving the future of retail.
“New York City has the highest concentration of design talent in the world, which results in the most dynamic retail stores,” says Hodges. Retail Store Tours will conduct a variety of store tours during the NRF 2023: Retail’s Big Show. The company also offers customized tours in New York City and twenty-five markets around the world.
Here are Daniel’s top ten stores in the New York City area.
Reddy by Petco
125 Prince Street
Reddy is the ultimate destination for pets and their owners. In addition to a full range of high-quality, functional products, the store features special attractions such as a dog water fountain and a fitting station to find the correct size and style of accessories for your pet. The store also offers Halloween parties, birthday parties and special life moments for your dog. It is an end-to-end store in products for your canine companions, ranging from fashion to food and all delivered by a team that clearly loves dogs and dog lovers.
Salvatore Ferragamo
63 Greene Street
The Salvatore Ferragamo store on Greene Street in Soho is a new class of store that is unique in design and experience. The fashion items are all unique to that location. The experiences available in store include creating your own NFT at their dedicated NFT studio. Shoppers can also design their own sneaker in augmented reality that projects an image of the sneaker in a 3D hologram. The welcoming and responsive store team helps you navigate the experience.
TiLT A Tracy Lee Stum Museum
1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ
The Tracy Lee Stum Museum, or TiLT, is an example of the power of social media integrated into physical retail. The museum, located at the American Dream experience center, offers more than thirty snap-worthy optical illusions in which you can place yourself—for example, standing on King Kong’s palm over the Empire State building or flying on a hot dog over New York. The integration of social media in physical spaces has become popular in China over the past two years, and this trend is well exhibited at this immersive experience museum.
Altar'd State
1 American Dream Way, East Rutherford, NJ
Altar'd State is an amazing women’s fashion and accessories boutique and one of the most profitable retail chains in the United States. The store is filled with unexpected discoveries, like a water fountain in the center of the store, and dedicated places to take photographs with your friends and share with your thousands of followers. A mark of a truly great retail store is the dressing room, and this dressing room is five stars out of five: it features a sumptuous room with a simulated fireplace and a cozy sound-proof area that is immersive and delightful.
Lip Lab Brooklyn
160 N 4th St, Brooklyn
This is beauty customization at its finest. At Lip Lab Brooklyn, color experts first help customers mix a shade that’s perfect for them, which can then be personalized with a choice of four finishes, an optional scent, and custom engraving. The atmosphere is similar to a neighborhood bar, where people converse and create a sense of fun, discovery and getting away from it all—it’s an enjoyable experience with friends or even alone.
ÅLAND
76 N 4th St Unit H, Brooklyn
Åland was started by two sisters with stores originally only in South Korea. The Brooklyn location boasts a stunning design, which leads shoppers into and through the store as though following an enchanted trail into a forest. As customers walk into Åland, they are visually intrigued to the point of delightful disorientation. Above all, Åland is a place to buy some of the most innovative, curated products from Asia.
Hermès
706 Madison Avenue
The Hermès store on Madison Avenue in New York City is the ultimate sensory experience. Every aspect of winning retail store features—from lighting to friendly smiles to exquisite product—is found here. Hermès is the study of excellence, brilliance and execution all in one. Hermès is a must-see store in New York.
Solana Spaces
Hudson Yards – 2nd Floor
Solana Spaces is a new concept by Vibhu Norby, formally of b8ta and Google. The store is an immersive learning experience that explains the world of cryptocurrency, Web 3.0, NFTs and much more. There is a digital dawn happening in retail and there is no better place to witness it than Solana Spaces.
Lucid
Two 9th Avenue
Lucid is an electric vehicle that is marketed like Louis Vuitton and other leading luxury brands. The sales team provides Lucid test drives in virtual reality, displays detailed product knowledge and offers the best experience you can find for buying an electric vehicle.
Nordstrom
225 W 57th Street
The Nordstrom flagship in New York on West 57th Street is a store where every square inch and every smile creates an experience that holds your attention and makes time stand still. Nordstrom is the epitome of best practices, from merchandising to dining experiences to product display and to their sumptuous beauty section on the second floor. The amazing thing about Nordstrom is that every square inch of the store and every helpful engagement with a well-trained and motivated team member makes you feel like family. At Nordstrom you feel like you’re going home every time you shop or dine at this five-star store.
And while you’re here …
In addition to these suggested stops, Big Show attendees can take expert-led, highly curated and time-efficient walking tours of more than fifty notable stores in New York. The guided Retail Store Tours were created in partnership with Retail Store Tours and developed with extensive retail input.
Available programs include:
American Dream: The Future of Retail Experience
A world-class retail and entertainment destination, American Dream redefines the customer experience in shopping and leisure with a unique combination of retail, dining, technology and entertainment. Called one of the seven wonders of the retail world, American Dream features over four hundred stores and attractions just a short bus ride from the Javits Center.
Brooklyn/Williamsburg: Where Trends, Technology and New Business Models are Created
Well over a decade ago, an influx of artists, musicians and retro-style bars made Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood trendy. Today, we find existing brands such as Apple and Alo Yoga in unique forms and formats. Come to Williamsburg to see new creative concepts, products and business models in retail, easily accessible from Midtown Manhattan and the Javits Center.
Hudson Yards: Merging Brick-and-Mortar with Digital
One of the newest shopping facilities in New York City, Hudson Yards represents the best of what leading-edge retail has to offer. A vertical mall that is easy to navigate, it features everything from out-of-the-box mindfulness to participatory experiences to luxury brands reinventing themselves. Hudson Yards is on Manhattan’s West Side and a five-minute walk from the Javits Center.
SoHo + NoHo: Visionary Innovation Meets Savvy Reinvention
Nowhere is the scale and diversity of retail more pronounced than in SoHo and NoHo. A short distance from the Javits Center, SoHo and NoHo are known worldwide for innovative artistry and artfulness. It is here that 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 will not be around tomorrow. The randomness is inspirational, and it adds to the neighborhood’s excitement. See why SoHo and NoHo are the neighborhoods where old stores come to reinvent themselves.
New York City
New York City really is the epicenter of store design and store excellence. Retail Store Tours has fifteen unique tours that illustrate the shopping districts, the imagination and the engagement that happen when business creatives get together and make unforgettable experiences.
