The Best Shopping in New York City
- Best Gadget Store: B & H. The top place on the East Coast to get deep discounts on cameras, TVs, computers, and other electronics. And because 50% of their sales are now online, service has gotten much less rushed. The salespeople are real experts.
- Best Department Store: Bloomingdales. A mix of pricey, and slightly less pricey clothing, homewares, cosmetics, and more, all in a festive store where new goods come in each week.
- Best Bargain Department Store: Century 21. Come early on weekdays to avoid the crowds at this wild designer-markdown emporium that closed for several years (due to the pandemic) but returned in 2023.
- Best Vintage Store: Beacon’s Closet (multipal locations). A minichain with several stores in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan stocking some of the best, most affordable clothing in town.
- Best Clothing Shopping Zone: SoHo, NoHo, and Nolita. Three neighborhoods together create the best single area for roaming and shopping among the newest, trendiest boutiques.
- Best Bookstore: The Strand. This local legend is worth a visit for the staggering "18 miles of books"—new and used titles at up to 85% off the list price.
- Best Old-World Sweets Store: Economy Candy. All of the goodies you loved as a kid, in a densely packed candy store. It also carries excellent dried fruits and nuts if you're feeling virtuous.
- Best Beauty Store: C. O. Bigelow. The motto here—“If you can’t get it anywhere else, try Bigelow’s”—is right on the money. This 162-year-old apothecary (the oldest in the nation) carries the brands you can’t find anywhere, plus its own excellent house label of personal-care products.
- Best Old-World Jewish Food Store: Russ & Daughters. This smoked-fish purveyor has been a mainstay on the Lower East Side since 1914 (or 1908, if you count its push-cart days). As with DiPalo’s, the Russ family has been in charge since the beginning.
- Best Homewares Store: ABC Carpet & Home. This magical (and pricey) two-building emporium is legendary, and it deserves to be: It’s the ultimate home fashions and furnishings store, with everything from zillion-thread-count sheets to enchanting children’s furniture.