Retail Store Tours are expert-led, highly curated, time efficient guided walking tours of cutting-edge stores. Learn more and register to tour a store in NYC during Retail’s Big Show.
An epicenter of fashion, art and culture, New York City is home to some of the most unique retail experiences in the world. NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show is the perfect opportunity to see these stores firsthand.
“New York sets the standard in best practices and experience retail,” says Daniel Hodges, CEO of Retail Store Tours, which hosts five distinct tours during NRF 2025. The tours are expert-led and offered in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese and more.
“The themes of the store tours are based on feedback from retailers who said, ‘get us out to see the stores of New York City,’” Hodges says. “What makes the store tours unique is the content, the access to senior retail executives and the feedback from retailers around the world.”
Retail Store Tours are offered in New York City and over 50 markets around the world. Hodges uses the Intelligent Engagement Index to evaluate stores using the human touch, the use of technology, store design, brand story, employee training, change management, unique value proposition and shopper safety.
Here are Hodges’ top 10 retail experiences in the New York City area.
706 Madison Avenue
The 20,250-square-foot store is a union of New York dynamism and Parisian elegance. The building is an ambitious fusion of three existing buildings connected by the Parisian architecture agency RDAI, led by Denis Montel. The central structure, completed in 1921 in the Federalist style as an outpost of the Bank of New York, anchors the southwest corner of its block. The adjacent buildings, former townhouses (one on Madison, the other on 63rd Street) meet in an L-shape encasing the Bank.
The store unfolds in a series of salons, each distinctive and boasting its own unique elements. Carefully chosen materials that blend perfectly with the atmosphere, such as stucco, straw marquetry, various wood finishes, leather and handcrafted wallpaper are among the store’s distinctive features. The new boutique employs a palette of warm neutrals — ivories, beiges, light browns — with injections of vibrant hues, which intensify from floor to floor.
63 Wooster Street
Gucci Wooster spans an entire city block, with two entrances on Wooster Street to West Broadway, within a 155-year-old landmark-protected building that was once a pencil factory. The renovated concept preserves the original framework of the building, revealing restored brickwork, iron and wooden floors, tin ceilings and columns that blend seamlessly with the new stainless steel, glass and cement finishes throughout the space and place.
Owing to the creative vision that inspired the renovations of the recently inaugurated Monte Napoleone store in Milan, the interiors feature a selection of icons of Italian design by Cassina, B&B Italia and Minotti, aligning with Sabato De Sarno’s contemporary aesthetic and placing Gucci’s collections at the forefront. The four fitting rooms are encapsulated with lacquered Rosso Ancora panels.
225 W. 57th Street
The Nordstrom New York City flagship represents the biggest and best statement of the brand and the largest single-project investment in Nordstrom history. Located on West 57th Street and Broadway, the store offers 320,000 square feet of retail space across on seven levels. The merchandise includes a curated breadth of product offerings across price points, including clothing, accessories, shoes, beauty and home. A robust selection of exclusive, limited distribution and emerging brands and styles are available, making Nordstrom a one-stop destination.
450 W. 33rd Street
Whole Foods Market’s 60,245-square-foot Manhattan West store opened in July 2020 in New York City’s Hudson Yards development. The store offers a produce section with a wide range of organic offerings, full-service meat and seafood counters, a large selection of beer including offerings from local breweries, a cheese counter overseen by a Certified Cheese Professional and a grocery department stocked with private label favorites from 365 by Whole Foods Market and local products from New York-based suppliers — all of which meet the grocer’s rigorous quality standards for food ingredients.
The first level of the store is set up as a convenience market that provides a quick shopping experience without the need to navigate the full store, offering grab-and-go meal and snack options, baked goods, desserts and cold beverages. Bars and eateries located inside the store include plant-based Mexican cuisine from Jajaja, matcha lattes from Matchaful, coffee from Café Grumpy and modern gastropub West Side Corner.
113 Wooster Street
WGACA is the leading destination for luxury vintage accessories and apparel. For over 30 years, its expert team of buyers and authenticators has meticulously curated pre-owned treasures from iconic brands such as Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Fendi and Saint Laurent. The Atelier features a custom-built live shopping studio in its basement where luxury live shopping events are broadcast on platforms like Amazon, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and YouTube.
685 Fifth Avenue
The store’s design is a collaboration between Coach’s executive creative director Stuart Vevers and designer Bill Sofield, of New York-based Studio Sofield. Customers enter the store under a double-height ceiling, where a winding mechanical conveyor belt rotates vintage and current products through the air above, emphasizing the space’s height and surrounding the eye in Coach. Upon stepping through the entry, visitors are greeted by Rexy, a 12-foot Tyrannosaurus rex sculpture crafted entirely out of Coach leather goods by artist Billie Achilleos.
Vintage handbags from the archives are displayed on shelves throughout, and in the customization shop on the second floor they’ve been outfitted with hand-cut appliqués, adding a fresh twist to storied silhouettes. Such inspiration is evident in more subtle ways. Subway tiles, pendant lights and an open elevator system are all evocative of popular styles at the time of Coach’s founding.
629 Sixth Avenue
The Container Store is the nation’s only retailer with a solution-oriented offering of custom spaces, organizing solutions and in-home services. The Container Store provides a collection of creative, multifunctional and customizable storage and organization solutions that are sold in stores and online through a high service, differentiated shopping experience. The Container Store Custom Spaces features exclusive products consisting of elfa, Avera and Preston brands, which are wholly owned and manufactured by The Container Store.
10 Columbus Circle
The Williams Sonoma story began in 1956 when founder Chuck Williams established his first specialty cookware shop in Sonoma, Calif. His vision and passion live on at the Williams Sonoma store at Columbus Circle. The store hosts cooking classes with local chefs and book signings with celebrity chefs. It offers a wide variety of cookware, bakeware, kitchen tools, tableware, specialty foods and more — all characterized by a commitment to premium-quality, artisanal craftsmanship and cutting-edge innovation. The store team is knowledgeable, helpful and full of enthusiasm and ideas.
205 Bleecker Street
Pop Up Grocer is the destination to discover new grocery items. The company uses physical retail spaces to, first and foremost, increase visibility for emerging, better-for-you brands in the food, beverage, home, pet and body care spaces. Its first permanent store in downtown New York City operates on seasonal rotations, bringing in hundreds of new products every 90 days for consumers to discover. And with its immersive café, visitors can trial the products on shelves through creative drink and food collaborations.
303 Lafayette Street
REI was founded in 1938 when a group of 23 climbing friends, united by their love for the outdoors, decided to source quality and affordable gear for their adventures. REI has a unique business model with 23 million members who pay a small fee and receive discounts on purchases.
Staffed by experts who run, fish, hunt, ski, camp, cycle, hike, travel, skate and more, the store is set up by sport and by activity with everything you need in each section. REI offers walk-in repairs for select items and bicycles. The store is packed on Friday as shoppers stop by to get last minute items for their outdoor weekend activities in New York City and beyond.
Beyond these suggested stops, NRF 2025 attendees can take expert-led, highly curated and time-efficient walking tours of more than 200 notable stores in and around New York. These tours were created in partnership with Retail Store Tours and developed with extensive retailer input.
The tours allow participants to gain insights from subject-matter experts, network with peers and stay ahead of industry trends. Programs are designed to deliver impactful, retailer connections and unique experiences for each location.
American Dream offers a unique combination of retail, dining, technology, entertainment and attractions. It features more than 400 stores, including ski, swim, soar, luxury, fashion, beauty, grocery and dining experiences, along with the world’s most sophisticated intelligent display network. This tour provides insights on measuring the impact of sustainability and comparing smart stores to standard stores.
This survey of the Oculus district takes you on a tour of the recent history of retail disruption and adaptation. Visit the Apple Store, which pioneered evaluating staff based on kindness and empathy. The tour includes a stop by the stark Amazon Go, which has done away with checkout, and Eataly, where children take cooking classes while the store sommelier educates parents on the latest Tuscan reds. The Oculus is at the center of digital signage and technology innovation.
This tour of best-in-class retailers on New York’s famous Fifth Avenue provides a firsthand look at store technology, concepts and merchandising. Get insights into the latest innovations in store design and the ideas, influencers and thought process behind their conception. Tour participants will learn how in-store advertising drives in-store customer loyalty programs to create more effective customer connections.
In this neighborhood, see AI implemented in technology, automotive, food and fashion stores. Continuing a transformation that began in the 1990s, the Meatpacking District is now home to the famed High Line linear park and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In the last 20 years, fashion and graphic designers, architects, artists, restaurateurs, world-renowned stylists and corporate headquarters have moved in alongside existing meatpacking plants. It is the home of innovative stores such as the new Google store, Restoration Hardware, the Samsung Innovation Center, Warby Parker, Sephora and many more.
The scale and diversity of retail is on full display in SoHo and NoHo, with cutting-edge retailers
known worldwide for their innovative artistry and artfulness. Side by side with iconic stores are avant-garde pop-ups that will not be around tomorrow. Learn about the latest technology and best practices for connected store journeys with a look at 2025 and beyond.