INFORMATION

SHOPPING

New York has always been one of the main destinations for those who love shopping and even though globalization has somewhat flattened the uniqueness of the products sold, the city remains an inexhaustible source of items to buy. You can find a bit of everything from large clothing retailers to small boutiques, from big names to emerging designers. There are the latest electronic devices and the small antiques on display in a flea market, Chinantown's cheap shops and diamond District diamonds.

Prices

The prices displayed in stores never include taxes, the total amount of which is 8.875%. Clothing products with a single or pair cost of less than $110 are exempt. Sometimes in some shops it is possible to negotiate on the price which may also vary depending on the type of payment (cash or charge?). Be careful because tourists, like all over the world, are a bit targeted and therefore they often start from very high prices.

Sale

Sales are often an opportunity to make good deals and in addition to the traditional end-of-season sales, there are also occasional promotional offers such as the famous Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving Day, which starts Christmas shopping. During this day the big distribution, but not only, offers very high discounts. Black Friday is usually followed by Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Black Friday, when great discounts are offered on electronic products. Often these offers are just online and the day is the answer of e-commerce at Black Friday.

Where

In the Downtown area there is the Westfield World Trade Center, the largest shopping center in Manhattan located inside the World Trade Center Transportation Hub designed by Santiago Calatrava. Then there is the pedestrian area of Fulton Street with some shops and Century 21, a four-story department store.
In Chinatown there are shops with souvenirs, gift items, as well as gold and jewelry and especially many imitations, not only of clothing products but also of perfumes and cosmetics. In the East Village and Lower East Side there are a wide variety of shops selling mainly clothing, gifts and music. SoHo and TriBeCa boutiques, art galleries and the busy Apple Store make it a bit of a snobbish area for shopaholics, while Greenwich Village also has a number of antiques stores. In the Meatpacking District there is the Chelsea Market, a large food market, an Apple Store and Samsung 837, the first and only official Samsung store as well as clothing and design stores.
Going north there is Chelsea with many shops but also some flea markets that are often stormed on weekends. The stretch of Broadway between 14th St. and 23rd St. was once called The Ladies' Mile, because in the period between the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was a refined shopping area where rich ladies came by carriage to shop, today there are no longer the fine boutiques of the past but still remains an area with many shops. Here on the corner of Broadway and 18th St., there is Paragon Sports, one of the historic sports shops.
In the 34th St. stretch between Herald Square and 7th Ave., there is Macy's, the largest and most famous department store in New York. From Herald Square, eight blocks northward leads to the Times Square area with gift, souvenir and electronics stores. On the square there is TkTs where you can buy tickets for shows at a reduced price.
Also from Herald Square, but following 34th St. in the east bound, you go to the famous Fifth Avenue. On this part of 34th St., there are many shops of famous brands such as Victoria's Secret, Gap, Banana Republic, Levi's, Forever 21, Uniqlo, Zara, Steve Madden, the Italian Geox, American Eagle Outfitters, Timberland and Amazon Books. Fifth Avenue, on the other hand, is one of the shopping hotspots in the city, with many clothing, sports, electronics and souvenir shops, as you climb towards Central Park the shops become more refined and in some cases even exclusive as the famous Tiffany jeweler. Here you'll find the fine department stores Lord & Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue, but also theme stores such as the NBA Store, the Disney Store and the Yankees Clubhouse. On Fifth Avenue, between 48th and 51st St., there is the Rockefeller Center, where among others there are the Lego Store and FAO Schwarz. Then there is the clothing with the stores of the world's large retailers and the refined boutiques of fashion designers. Finally, culture with the Barnes & Noble bookshop and the large New York Public Library.
From the south-east of Central Park, the shopping street moves through 57th St. to the East Side, focusing on Lexington Avenue and Madison Avenue. Here, too, there's plenty of clothing and another famous department store, Bloomingdales. Continuing to climb uptown, the shopping area gives way to the residential area. The same thing happens on the West Side starting from Columbus Circle where there is the refined shopping center The Shops at Columbus Circle.

Outlet

With its 220 shops Woodbury Common Premium is the largest and busiest outlet in the New York area, is located north along Route 32 in the Central Valley and can be reached with an hour's drive on Highway 87. There are various companies that organize bus transfers, a complete list can be found at the web page www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/woodbury-common/travel-here. Finally, the excursion to the outlet is also part of the New York Pass package.
In nearby New Jersey there is the big The Mills At Jersey Gardens, with over 200 shops and in Flemington in New Jersey there is the small Liberty Village Premium Outlets, with 40 shops.
On Long Island there are also two outlets of the Tanger group, the one in Riverhead, which with its 165 stores is the largest, but also the furthest from Manhattan, and the one in Deer Park with 88 stores. The distances and approximate times of travel from the Port Authority Bus Terminal are (625 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018):
- Woodbury Common Premium: 49 miles (78 km), 1h – 1h30’
- Tanger Outlet Deer Park: 50 miles (80 km), 1h10’ – 1h40’
- Tanger Outlet Riverhead: 73 miles (117 km), 1h30' – 2h
- The Mills At Jersey Gardens: 18 miles (29 km), 30’ – 1h
- Liberty Village Premium Outlets: 60 miles (96 km), 1h10’ – 1h40’.

References

Sales Tax (The Official Website of the City of New York)

Useful links

Shopping (The Official Guide nyctourism.com)
Woodbury Common Premium
Tanger Outlet Deer Park
Tanger Outlet Riverhead
The Mills At Jersey Gardens
Liberty Village Premium Outlets