The NYC Retail Blueprints

By Ard van Leeuwen, Owner Kega & Keephub

Last January, I visited the NRF 'Big Show' with a delegation of Dutch brands, retailers, wholesalers, and partners. Although the NRF takes place in the Javits Center, we also had many valuable store visits. In a city like New York (especially in Manhattan), the high street is a strong barometer for global developments in retail.

A key insight I gained during our store visits is the fundamental shift where sustainability is no longer a niche for a few parties, but is becoming an integral part of retail strategy.

Sustainability as standard

During our store tours in Soho, Midtown, and Fifth Avenue, among others, everyone noticed that sustainability is now woven into almost every store concept. Where this was often a marketing choice before, we now see this structurally reflected in both the assortment, the store presentation, and the materials.An international brand like Crocs is taking its responsibility by switching to bio-based materials for their shoes and eliminating packaging material (i.e., shoe boxes). This is a great step that we saw not only at Crocs but also at Banana Republic, REI, and Golden Goose, for example. These brands ensure that the hurdle for consumers to make sustainable choices is lowered.

Strategic challenge for the mid-segment

An important topic of conversation in the group was the position the mid-segment occupies within this trend. Retailers such as Patagonia and REI have, due to their history and vision, a head start in sustainable business and practices (think of repair and reuse), but they are no longer the only ones taking action in this area. The competitive advantage they had is gradually becoming smaller. On the other hand, you have mid-segment parties that are incorporating sustainability into their strategy. This is a complex task as they must navigate between a critical consumer and a price-conscious customer who is not immediately willing to pay more for sustainability.

On Fifth Avenue, we see how various mid-segment brands are dealing with this. Swarovski, for example, is heavily committed to lab-grown diamonds to reduce the ecological and ethical pressure of mining. SKIMS focuses on the logistics side by using fully compostable packaging. Both are excellent examples that show that every industry is trying to find its own form of sustainability to remain relevant in a landscape that is becoming more sustainable. This is especially true when we zoom in on the Western European consumer, who increasingly demands complete transparency and responsible choices.

A critical signal at MOM’s Organic Market

This sharp eye of the consumer became very tangible during our visit to New Jersey, where we visited a number of supermarkets (including Amazon Fresh and Stew Leonard’s). Here we also stopped at MOM’s Organic Market, a supermarket chain (with 25 branches now) that exclusively sells organic products. During this store visit, we were literally confronted with the high expectations of the customer.

A customer in the store approached our group because she assumed that we, as a group, must be from the head office. She seized the opportunity and expressed her displeasure in a strikingly fierce manner; she found it unacceptable that the leaves of the vegetables had been cut off. In her view, this led to unnecessary loss of nutrients, which is a waste and, of course, not sustainable.

This chance encounter and intriguing conversation exposed an interesting development; consumers worldwide (from the US to Europe) are increasingly well-informed and expect this from retailers as well. They look not only at the store or the article per se, but at the entire chain and the integrity of the brand and product groups. The signal was clear to us: the bar is high!

Online as the next step in the sustainability strategy

Brands that opt for sustainable solutions in their business operations want to prevent these steps from being seen as ‘greenwashing’. However, this immediately means that sustainability cannot be limited to the shop floor (where it is most visible to the customer), but must be secured throughout your entire process.

Therefore, the sustainability strategy must also be continued online. In the American market, we see that sustainability in e-commerce is often linked to the operational and logistical side, a trend that is also visible and irreversible in the European e-commerce market. Examples of this include:

• Return Policy: Charging shipping costs for returns is becoming normal to limit and/or compensate for CO2 emissions.

• Transparency: The ability to filter on specific sustainability characteristics and quality marks is becoming a standard filter functionality.

• Logistical Choices: The active choice for environmentally friendly delivery options in the check-out is becoming the norm.

A Paradoxical Reality

The NRF 2026 makes it clear that sustainability is the new 'license to operate'. It is a theme that affects the entire chain, from producer to wholesaler and retailer. Yet, this remains paradoxical in the American context. While we saw impressive examples of CO2 reduction in the stores, we also noticed that the energy crisis in Manhattan does not seem to have fully sunk in everywhere; temperatures in stores and hotels were often unnecessarily high.

We return with much ‘food for thought’, but also with the realization that the implementation of sustainability requires close collaboration between all departments and partners. The future of retail is sustainable, and its execution demands sobriety and consistency.