MoMA Design and Book Store

I enjoy cool design shit as much as the next boring person, which is to say I’ve been on the MoMA store website a couple times to browse kitchen gadgets that make me go, «Heh.» When my husband and I visited the MoMA on a recent trip to New York, I decided to pop my head in this design store across the street for a quick browse.
It was a really nice store, attractive with an easy-​to-​navigate layout. I browsed for a bit, looked at some cool jewelry and colorful home goods. I didn’t buy anything, though I might have if I’d stayed long enough. Everything was so neat, I just felt like it was all kind of expensive and that I wouldn’t know what to do with it once I got home. My house isn’t super decorated, so if I bought a bunch of shit from the MoMA store, I’d just be the fool with a half-​assed-​looking interior design scheme, who obviously bought a bunch of shit from the MoMA store, and for like a lot of money, too.
Still, I enjoyed stopping into this place for a visit, and would recommend it for cool gifts and knick knacks. I’ll keep browsing the MoMA store website once in a while, and I’m sure at some point, I’ll fork over some money.

I like the store’s products, but no matter what I do to try to get off its snail mail-​list, I keep on being pounded with glossy catalogs I don’t want. Please, MoMA, be more careful with nature’s — and your own — resources!

My daughter is an art major in college so whenever I visit NY I try to stop at this store to find books that may help her with her degree. The shop offers various books on the museum itself along with books of culture and different types of modern art.
They also have Uniglo inspired Tee shirts for sale along with some holiday ornaments and special gifts tailored to the museum itself. Across the street is another store that focuses on sculptures and different times of art tools used for making art media. I didn’t get a lot of time to browse that store but they do have a lot a interesting giftware for a bit of a price but different if you want something unique.

They clearly do not believe in customer service and they don’t care whether they have your business or not. My brother and I were visiting and I decided to purchase a membership for my brother who is from Boston and can easily visit NY. At the membership desk, the lady was lovely and told us about these great benefits as a member and that we would received 20% off our first purchase at the MoMa stores today. After our visit, I purchased items at the gift shop and was able to receive the discount without any problems, since my brother was with me. We went across the street and I picked out two pieces of jewelry and another little item and the cashier declined my discount, stating that since I’m not the member I would have to pay in CASH or ask my brother to pay. I’m so confused by this rule because no one explained this to us at the beginning and the discount was honored at the gift shop at the museum when I paid for my purchase with my credit card. The manager clearly didn’t care for our business and basically told us no as well. What is the difference with me paying with cash or credit card? I can pay cash as a non member to get the discount but can’t pay with my credit card? Boggles my mind to how silly that sounded. The member, my brother, was standing there with me and I was the person who gifted the membership to him. I’m sure they have these «rules» in «fine print» so that people don’t a abuse the discount policy but this was super ridiculous and they could’ve easily accommodated us. They basically lost a $ 300 sale that could’ve benefited the museum and lost two customers. I didn’t care about the discount but simply because the customer service was horrible. When the manager tells you «oh they shouldn’t have given you the discount and allow you to purchase with the discount at the gift shop» was the most horrendous way to explain to a customer about a policy that was broken by their employee. I do not recommend buying a membership for yourself or as a gift for family or friends. I’ll be sure to tell my colleagues here in NYC and all of my friends about this horrible organization.

Love the place!

Love this place. I stalk it online all year, and then clean the place out (figuratively speaking) whenever I get to visit. There’s great items for every price range, person on your shopping list, and room in your house. This year we picked up cute items for the kitchen (little measuring beakers… we’re chemists), Japanese-​style lunch boxes, gadgets for the office, and more. Members get a discount, the check-​out lines move fast, and while crowded, the flow is great so you don’t really have to stand around too much waiting for people to get the heck out of the way.

This is a review of the ONLINE MoMA store. Unfortunately I will NEVER use this online store again and would recommend all others stay away too.
Shortly after Thanksgiving I placed an order online with them. The order was to be Christmas gifts. It never arrived. Two days AFTER Christmas I received a call stating they did not have my correct address. This was inspite of my being a MoMA member and using my AMEX, which requires a correct address for the charge to go through (it did) for every order.
The MoMA online customer representative insisted the lack of delivery was MY fault.
I will not make the mistake of using the MoMA online store again.

Always a fun place to go and look for gifts! I Work next door so let’s just say I have spent plenty of lunch breaks in this store!

I love this store. This is the best museum store around and it doesn’t look antique like the other one down the street. I love the layout, real modern and colorful. The prices for some of the things are reasonable. I get my metro card holders from this place and have great gift nick nacks for friends and family.
I will be coming to this place for my christmas shopping and online. Cool beans this place.

From time to time I would check out MOMA’s website & simply adore their offerings, so it was pretty neat that I got to check out the brick & mortar store.
This place is pretty fantastic. Very cool & unique knick knacks, kitchen stuff, jewelry, & impulse buys. The prices seem pretty reasonable, as well.
The store stays pretty busy (we were there on two different days). The associates there are really quick in checking out customer purchases, though. There are also associates mingling around, in case you have a question or need something.

Went back to MOMA recently (woot!) and this time, I found the main MOMA Book Store (the store in the same building as the actual museum) to actually have a better selection of gifts and stationery than the MOMA Design Store across the street!
Unfortunately the selection of Christmas ornaments at the Design Store was kind of boring… more like stuff you’d expect to see in a Hallmark store.
One last thing: we enjoyed checking out the FLUXUS exhibit at MOMA, but did not see any gift items (including books or stationery) related to the FLUXUS movement. You would think that MOMA would be embracing more of the fun, avant-​garde stuff. (I’m telling you, Yoko Ono and her colleagues get no respect!)

I’ve enjoyed the website and hoped that I’d get to see this place in person one day, and when I was in NYC, I got to check it out.
Great store, wonderful and surprising items for sale. It was really packed on the day I was there, but it was a great place to find things.
If you’re a fan of design, get here quick!

A while back I stopped here while I was waiting for a friend to check out the MOMA. It’s a great store, and as quirky and original as the SOHO store, just kinda far out of the way. I ended up buying a plastic ring with a carpenters balance bubble on top. I used it as a gag at a party I hosted explaining to everyone who cared to listen that I used the wonderful ring to keep myself sober. If I was off balance, I knew I was in trouble!

Sweet shop with everything… books, prints, unique household items and your typical museum gift shop items.
Love it.

NO! no, no, no, NO! this place is a huge temptation to my pocket! The money I saved on the free entrance was «invested» into fancy decoration and some gifts! the horror! If you like contemporary art and new was to decorate… this place (and all the similar associated) will be your end!
Enjoy!

The Holiday season is approaching and my mail box is already clogged with catalogs. The highlight of this pile is the the catalog from the MOMA Design Store. They offer all sorts of cool stuff (including Muji), and when the Members 20% discount weekends appear, I take out the page markers and plot my gift and self-​gratification strategies. And sometimes the savings make up for their fairly steep shipping rates.
As a National Member (off and on) of the MOMA, I think I’ve only physically been here once. That’s probably just as well, as I’d have a hard time leaving without dropping some significant change. However, as a Bay Area Resident, the SF MOMA Stores in the City and at SFO are a reasonable substitute.

This place is a beautiful shop that is reflective of the museum and modern feel of the place. There is HUGE selection of books, art, and prints, as well as clever little trinkets you may use around the house.
–Time Burton prints
–Contemporary art postcards
–The history of Black and White photography
–Unique rubber kitchen utensils
This place is a pop culture explosion.
It’s definitely a nice place to pursue on your free time, to get that artsy stimulation or just to go somewhere that does the same things differently. Definitely worth going to.

I can say this: I bought several of my christmahanukwanzaarandomholidaynonsense gifts here for family who are not from the area. The kind of family who enjoy novelty, somewhat artistic gifts. I prefer to buy ones that aren’t cheap looking or cheesy. And the MoMA store was perfect for that.
Some of the prices for things you could buy at TARGET or IKEA were absurd, but some of the novelty things were reasonable, as well as art prints. Not so bad.
The cashiers are dipwads. And the place is overflowing with visitors bedecked in fanny packs and cameras. But what do you expect?

Dude. No impulse buying.
It’s easy as a tourist to step into this store and say «oooh this looks cool» and then immediately buy it. BUT you have to have the smarts and the discipline to stop, step back, and realize that you won’t use 90% of the stuff that looks cool.
If you’re good about it, you’ll be able to find a couple of decent items to commemorate your visit to MOMA without breaking the bank. I was able to snag a lovely red glass mug for $ 10 and a mini-​NY wood block display for another $ 15. Not bad.
The majority of the stuff here is over priced and meant for novelty. As long as you maintain some self control, you won’t get that «I can’t believe I bought this useless crap» feeling the day after.

I’ve never been to the MoMA Design Store in Soho… but I’ve fallen in love with this store located right in front of the museum.
Lots and lots of artful and innovative goods. The kitchenware items are so fascinating, I wish I could buy them all. And of course, MUJI… Nice to see it again.
NOTE: This weekend (Oct 20 – 21) is the Members Shopping Days weekend — get your 20% discount on all merchandises!