New York City’s Holiday Shopping Scene: Inside Five Stores on the Rush to Christmas
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Where are people shopping this holiday season in New York City? From WWD’s assessment after traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn’s main shopping neighborhoods, it’s a mix of the classic big department stores, lifestyle-centric concept shops — and online.
While this past summer saw record lines of tourists outside SoHo’s luxury stores like Christian Dior and Gucci, that fanfare has since dissipated. The Friday and Saturday two weeks before Christmas, against the backdrop of sky-high inflation, those high-end stores were mostly quiet. The coffee shops and viennoiserie cafés along Madison Avenue were crowded with tourists, but the same could not be said for the area’s glut of luxury stores. Tourists lined sidewalks in Midtown Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but instead of lugging hauls of luxury shopping bags, they carried a small sachet, a box of Ugg boots, or — in many cases — no bags at all.
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Local New Yorkers, at one time beholden to the in-person experience, have gotten comfortable avoiding crowds. UPS and Amazon delivery personnel parked on the corners of residential neighborhoods like the Upper West Side are working overtime, their trucks overflowing with boxes. Some doormen in the area said that this year marks the most packages they have ever seen.
There are some bright spots, though, amid a more subdued-than-expected shopping landscape. Across three visits on both the weekend and midweek, Bergdorf Goodman was an unrelenting town square of luxury commerce. The Lower East Side housewares boutique Coming Soon was churning with its signature assortment of candy-colored candlesticks, placemats and bookends. And every few minutes at Tiffany & Co., you’d hear the crisp sound of heavy metal scissors snipping away at satin ribbon as sales associates tied another bow around one of the jeweler’s signature blue boxes.
Here, WWD goes inside five stores that exemplify shopping in New York City at this moment, as each experiences the holiday shopping craze in its own way.
Bergdorf Goodman
With stilt walkers, Santa Claus roaming its jewelry department, a string duet and silver trays of Champagne, Bergdorf Goodman had taken it upon itself to bring New York’s energy back to order.
Melissa Xides, senior vice president for store and brand operations, said that Bergdorf was “firing on all cylinders” in the lead-up to the holiday season, and clearly went for a take-no-prisoners approach in order to recoup from the peak of the pandemic. Simply put: They were working hard for the money. This extended to Bergdorf’s more outlandish than usual holiday windows, with one vignette featuring a red rhinestone dachshund that spins on a trivet and holds a bell in its mouth.
While many parts of New York’s retail scene are now quiet in light of inflation, Bergdorf’s high-spending client seemed nearly recession-proof. Fistfuls of the store’s inimitable lilac shopping bags have been spilling out onto streets citywide, and for more than a month before the typical Christmas rush.
The store declined to comment on bestsellers, but on a recent evening a trunk show with the jewelry designer Brett Neale saw the designer’s gold mushroom-shape earrings and pendants being passed around with the casualness of dress-up box costumes. A considerable number of empty Champagne glasses lingered on the Verdura counter — a sign of invested visitors past.
Bergdorf’s top-floor housewares department — where an animatronic, life-size polar bear sang classic holiday songs — was also the site of some half-dozen trees laden in designer ornaments, which tourists scooped up by the bucket. They’re located right beside the store’s café, BG, which this season emanated a scent of roast chicken so strong that it wafted all the way back to its nearly hidden selection of Lalique statuettes.
The Chanel shoe department, with pony-hair magenta kitten heels and quilted espadrilles, was so frenzied that its floor was a maze of discarded hand-warmer packs, half-emptied flutes of sparkling water and nude ped socks.
But Bergdorf was prepared — even down to the smallest detail. What would happen if one of their hired stilt walkers took a tumble or crashed into a Lobmeyr chandelier? “We have an existing insurance policy that covers our clients and associates alike,” said Xides. “They were professionals, though, and we only put them on floors that had the ceiling height to accommodate.”
Catbird
If Bergdorf Goodman’s shopping bag was this year’s holiday season fixture in uptown Manhattan, Catbird’s linen tote and crisp black shopping bag were its equivalents below 14th Street and along the L train stretch across Brooklyn.
It’s the first holiday season Catbird has hosted at its much-expanded Williamsburg, Brooklyn, flagship store — which opened in March at about 10 times the size of the company’s cubbyhole original. The company also has a SoHo store that opened in 2019.
While Catbird’s former store would become clogged with shoppers around the holidays, its new outpost gives the jeweler’s collection, and customers, some long-needed breathing room.
As Catbird continues to expand — selling more than 10,000 pieces per week out of its Brooklyn Navy Yard headquarters, where all of its jewelry is also manufactured — it has managed to maintain the aura of a very petite and charming operation. Designs with strategically heart-warming names like “the diamond fizz ring,” make it feel as if they are made by little, hip elves tucked in a cozy corner — soldering beside an oud-scented candle with stick-and-poke tattoos peering out from underneath a vintage wool sweater. The reality is not far off, and many of those jewelers also work with a perfectly scruffy, adopted dog sitting at their feet.
It is what has made Catbird one of jewelry’s biggest New Age successes — an emblem of Brooklyn’s evolution.
“I hope it represents New York and this very specific experience and feeling of place,” said Leigh Plessner, Catbird’s longtime chief creative officer. “I hope it represents beautiful jewelry that’s made to last, under excellent conditions. And I hope it also represents a kindness and connection. People feel really good when they shop with us.”
For the past few years, Catbird has been bringing its jewelers out from behind the work bench to “zap” welded bracelets onto customers’ arms with a laser soldering machine. In its new flagship, the concept is now fully fledged, with about three tables constantly depositing permanent jewelry mementos onto shoppers’ wrists. There are new bracelets now available, some that are garlands of tiny hearts, others with the option to string a small diamond or pearl on as a charm.
This holiday season, families visiting from around the country have headed there to mark the occasion with a “zap.” “At the end of the day we get emails from the store and lately it’s been whole families. We had a family from Tennessee last week. It’s really special to have such a strong history that we continue to innovate and tell new stories,” said Plessner.
Saks Fifth Avenue
On a rainy, blustering Sunday two weeks before Christmas, Saks offered a warm refuge for what one sales associate cheekily described as “tree people,” or tourists crossing Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center, where New York’s most famous Christmas tree is on display.
Entering the store’s heavy, bronze doors by the dozen, the tourists gaped at the tinsel, rainbow ombré escalators and thousands of luxury handbag options acting as a supplementary tourist trap, something of a grandiose souvenir stop to buy a lipstick or festive ornament.
Their journey across the avenue from Rockefeller Center, though, was in no way perilous; for three weeks, the city has closed Fifth Avenue to traffic every Sunday leading up to the holidays to create a pedestrian plaza. In lieu of cars, there was an assortment of food trucks selling high-end coffee and $20 meatball sandwiches, alongside artfully displayed QR codes that directly linked shoppers to charitable sites accepting donations. The plan has been so successful, that Mayor Eric Adams hopes to make it a permanent, seven-day-a-week fixture.
Inside Saks, this translated to a new level of foot traffic; particularly inside the Louis Vuitton bag concession boutique, where crossbody monogram styles were continually pulled out of back stock and wrapped with cobalt blue ribbon.
On Saks’ famous shoe floor, which still boasts its own ZIP code, out-of-towners parked themselves on plush banquettes to try stilettos — a contrast to more local shoppers who combed sales racks of unseasonable raffia sandals and to stockpile for warmer days. WWD spotted a single stroller parked in the Givenchy section holding both a child and about 10 Armani Exchange shopping bags.
While a representative for Saks was not available for comment, a spokesperson said that bestsellers at the flagship this season include hoop earrings from Jennifer Fisher, Bottega Veneta hobo style bags, Burberry quilted jackets, Sacai tweed puffer coats and La Mer gift sets. Some sales associates on the ground, though, seemed concerned that it was not the Christmas rush they had expected. But there were still two weeks to go, they reasoned, and what fun is seeing the tree in pouring rain?
Tangerine
It’s a corner store where, instead of snacks and cleaning products, one can buy Japanese bath sachets, silk gingham scrunchies and responsibly made swimsuits. This is the success behind Tangerine, which opened in September 2021 when COA designer Amanda Lurie and Nu Swim creator Gina Esposito saw that their favorite local wine store had vacated a sunny corner space — and they decided to move in.
The multibrand boutique — located two blocks from the Lorimer Street L train station, on a main stretch of residential buildings in one of New York City’s trendiest areas — has become a one-stop shop for lifestyle and fashion goods. It caters to a shopping demographic that has moved on from midcentury vintage and developed an affinity for artisanal Japanese imports, like rice meditation candles and hinoki wood-scented products.
This holiday season, as rents and food prices climb and Tangerine’s base of young clients who mainly work in creative industries cut back on spending, the store has remained a haven for pick-me-ups. Lurie said that yesterday, a $25 travel cutlery set from Niigata, Japan received 60-or-so views on the store’s website alone. “Life is more expensive and people want to save money,” she said.
The small store has recently had more than 20 shoppers in at a time — most of whom gravitate toward lifestyle goods, like artisan wooden combs, imported Japanese glassware, quirky soap dishes and curated vintage books.
Outline
What happens when the first true high-end fashion boutique opens in a neighborhood filled with literary fortunes, seven-figure row houses and architectural pediatric clinics? They nearly run out of stock at the holidays.
Outline, a new multibrand boutique that sits at the intersection of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Fort Greene, has a very good problem on its hands.
“Across the board I’ve tried being pretty cautious with my buys. We have been selling out of things, the store is very bare. I don’t know what that means — if it’s a reflection of not buying enough or buying the right amount!” said cofounder Margaret Austin, formerly the women’s buyer at Opening Ceremony and Totokaelo, who opened Outline in September with two childhood friends.
The store’s first holiday season has been a whirlwind. Austin has linked with Jon Boschetto of housewares web shop Good Friend, on Outline’s lifestyle selection — like gardening shears from the U.K., mushroom-shaped knife rests and wacky candle sculptures from Osaka, Japan-based Goose Hag.
But she’s also observed some interesting shopper behavior. A man came in with photos of nearly the entire contents of his wife’s closet — it mainly coming from downtown designer Caron Callahan. Instead of choosing pieces from Lauren Manoogian or Lemaire at Austin’s suggestion, “he was very adamant about buying a sexy Helena Manzano set.”
Other customers have bought their partners jeans as a present. “I guess if you know people’s size it’s a good present,” Austin said, with Outline’s selection coming from smaller brands including Bsides and Silphium.
Other big hits include Boschetto’s assortment of beaded fruits and handmade menorahs from cult potter Jan Burtz, who makes all of the dishware for ABC Kitchen.
