Previously, planned raids by our compatriots on Fifth Avenue stores occurred only twice a year, in February and September, during the autumn and spring fashion weeks (since if you're coming to New York anyway, you might as well run through the shops!). Now, even during sales periods, New York's largest stores are hastily hiring Russian-speaking staff and awaiting the world-famous Russian shoppers.
The most important season for American stores is Christmas. It is at this time that 80% of annual sales occur. Stores announce discounts (on average about 30%) to lure customers. But a prudent professional shopper will wait. On December 26, sellers announce a 'post-Christmas sale' – discounts of about 50%. But even then, one should not rush. However, after the New Year, stores are eager to sell out their winter assortment and make room on shelves for the spring collection: discounts reach 80%. This is when you should make necessary purchases and not postpone – the required sizes and colors may run out.
Shopping experts in New York have even developed a certain shopping strategy. It divides the city into four parts: Fifth Avenue (boutiques of designers and jewelers of famous brands), SoHo (modern expensive brands, designer items), NoLiTa (young designers, one-of-a-kind items), and the neighboring state of New Jersey (shopping centers of well-known brands with big discounts – for gifts to friends and family). In between these stages, it has become traditional for our tourists to visit one of the three Apple stores and ritually buy five «iPhones». Recently, the rule «two iPhones per person» has been in effect, so you should bring companions for a store visit.
New York's geography allows planning shopping and cultural programs in brilliantly convenient and logical chords. The first chord – MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and Fifth Avenue boutiques. After two hours studying Jackson Pollock's drips and Andy Warhol's portraits, you can walk a block to find yourself in a small area in front of Central Park, where the main Louis Vuitton store, the Tiffani flagship, Van Cleef & Arpels, Gucci, Calvin Klein, and Cartier boutiques are located. These are the most expensive stores in the city, and therefore Japanese and Russian speech is often heard there. Prices compared to Tokyo and Moscow are attractive, sometimes even laughable.
The second chord is visiting Chinatown and Little Italy. The name North Little Italy is abbreviated as NoLiTa. This is an area where boutiques of young designers are concentrated. In Chinatown, you can buy gifts – a set of New York souvenirs for colleagues. T-shirts and mugs with the characteristic font and purple heart («I love NY») will cost a dollar each if you spend 15 minutes haggling – with the obligatory exit from the shop and triumphant return after the persuasion of a brisk Chinese trader. After lunch in a Chinese restaurant, you can quickly explore the boutiques of NoLiTa and SoHo, with stops at signature stores of Paul Smith (the Englishman has to sell goods in dollars, so prices are 30% lower than in London), Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, and Anna Sui. After walking a few streets, you can reach the Meatpacking District.
Where in the early 20th century meat was chopped and packaged, now flagship boutiques of Stella McCartney and Diane von Furstenberg, fashionable among the creative elite, have concentrated. In New York, you can buy things that are not available in other countries. For example, dresses with experimental prints by von Furstenberg. There are also books about her with the designer's autograph.
Footwear is a separate story. You can, of course, stop by Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo, celebrated by the series 'Sex and the City', but the main footwear secret of the big city is small but very good shoe brands from North and South America, which will never be sold in our country, where Italian shoemakers have long dominated.
On Broadway between SoHo and NoLiTa is the Museum of Modern Art store – a brilliant hybrid of a museum and a souvenir shop. Here you can find designer items selected by curators and specially made for the museum. For example, bags made of lightweight wood, designed by a Japanese designer – an environmental advocate, for just $200, and compliments from friends and passersby will last a whole season.
In conclusion, for the shopping part of a visit to New York, it's worth persuading local acquaintances to take you across the Hudson to the quiet state of New Jersey, where in a small town there is a special shopping center where well-known brands sell their collections with mind-boggling discounts (up to 90%). There you can very often meet our famous film actors. They also have New York friends.