Bargain-Hunting in the Big Apple

We’re back from a much-needed vacation to New York and New Jersey. We spent several days at the shore in Atlantic City, and of course hit NYC to take in the sights and do some shopping too.

Now, New York has a reputation for great shopping… and high prices. But I found that wasn’t the case. In fact, I got some incredible deals on clothes for my children that rivaled the kinds of deals I usually find back here at home.

First stop: 34th street, Conway.

Conway bills itself as “New York’s #1 Fashion Discount Chain,” and I definitely found that to be the case. Conway occupies at least 4 storefronts, covering most of the city block between 7th and 8th in Manhattan, with other locations too. Check out some of these finds I picked up there for my little guys:

Winter coat – $2.00
2 Oshkosh long-sleeved tees – $1.00 each
Disney “Cars” sweatshirt and pants set – $2.00
Disney “Cars” sweatshirt – $1.00
3 pairs of cotton boys’ pajamas – $1.00 each

Total: $10.00! Why so cheap? Notice that all of these are longsleeved/winter clothes, likely from last season. And it’s always cheaper to shop out-of-season — things will be marked down to rock-bottom prices! And look at this receipt…

NO sales tax! That’s right — clothing in NYC is not taxed! Isn’t that remarkable (especially when Chicago’s current tax rate is a whopping 10.25%? That made shopping in the city even MORE fun..!

Then it was off to Union Square, as my daughter wanted to go to Forever 21. Now, we have Forever 21 stores in Chicagoland too, and this is a very popular store with teen and tween girls as the clothes is high on style and typically low on price.

She bought six camisole tank tops for just $2.50 each! Layering these tops with hoodies, v-neck tees and other clothes is a very popular look right now, and she never seems to have enough of these little tops. We’ve previously bought camisoles like these in the $3 range at Old Navy and the like, but this price even beats that!

And… look again… 0.00% sales tax! LOVE that!

We really enjoyed our trip and finding great deals always makes things more fun too.

Now, inevitably, when you take a road trip, there are always things you forget to bring along (especially with 3 children in the car.) Can you believe I forgot to bring some Cheerios along for my little guys? (Especially when I have at least 14 boxes at home?) We stopped at a Shop-Rite so I could buy a box, and I was amazed to find that Shop-Rite automatically doubles coupons — meaning a 50-cent coupon takes $1.00 off. A 99 cent coupon takes $1.98 off, and so on.

The rest of the trip, I could not stop thinking about the deals I could get if the stores around Chicago doubled coupons..! I am a Midwest girl through and through, but the East coast definitely has some shopping advantages over our area!