Ranking of every Muji in Manhattan

Number 1 might surprise you!

Over the past few months, I have been shopping regularly for clothing and home goods at Muji. There is an unmistakable draw into the store, which at first glance is entirely unexceptional. But something about it keeps me coming back to buy well-made clothes and home goods at reasonable prices. Experience civilization at affordable prices.

I don't love Muji, because you can't love something like Muji, but I really, really like it. Muji is the closest industrial capitalism has come to fulfilling its basic human promise.

More than anything else I can think of, it embodies the virtues of mass, "democratized" design, production, and consumption. Everything is as right as it can be, not perfect, but right. Improved to the point of diminishing returns under current conditions, supplied niceness for people's lives under current conditions. No branding, no ostentation, no pretensions to luxury or exoticism or anything but being a bare object, no mushy story about how it will do x and y and change your life and make you better.

Because there are some things that do that, really, and those are the perfect things, the things we can love. But too many things claim and pretend to be like that, make false claims on our lives, colonize them and extract our cash.

Muji doesn't. It has no story. All everything it makes is is simple, nice, quietly, unemotionally beautiful, practical, useful, a slight perk up for your life quality, and plain, blank, meaningless. That's the real democracy of it, the meaninglessness. You decide what it means; it means what you use it for. How you plug it in to your life as it is.

That's Muji: you spend an easy amount of money, receive an object, plug it in to your life, receive a tiny dose of beauty and niceness, and put on that blank little plastic screen everything your life is. The $30 towel is your lover coming out of the shower in it, the $4.95 incense is the way you've made the room smell for them, the $2.00 canvas bag is the fruits, tomatoes, and oil you picked up for your meal together and carried it home in, the $20 pillow is their head as they flop down on to the bed, picking a strawberry out of the bag from its place on the $88 side table.

As magic as Muji is, there is a plain difference between their locations in Manhattan. Here is my ranking and review of each Muji.

1. Hudson Yards

   The Hudson Yards Muji is a respite from the hellish surroundings of whatever that Hudson Yards mall is called. It’s one of the few Mujis that is one story, but it’s a wide open space that allows for easy movement. I feel like the general vibe of the store is simply great, and it’s laid out in a way that makes shopping very comfortable.

   Upstairs (not connected to the store), I was surprised to find some kind of interactive Muji installation that left me wowed. I didn’t actually go through it but it was interesting if you’re into looking at products and scanning a qr code.

2. Bryant Park

   The Bryant Park location, along with the following three, is pretty standard in that it’s two stories. This location feels like the lower level is slightly larger than the others, with a wider selection of clothes and home goods. I also noticed the Muji Lab line of clothing here which I hadn’t noticed at the other locations, but maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough. This location is my personal favorite and the most convenient for me to get to, plus it’s near a Whole Foods.

3. Upper East Side (59th St.)

   Another standard Muji. There were two stories of clothing, home goods, pens, etc. This one stood out to me because there was a great selection of clothing and the customer service was marginally better than the other locations.

4. (Tie) Soho, Noho/Astor Place

   More standard two-level Muji locations. Nothing too notable about these, the selections were good and they did the trick. The Noho one seemed to have a slightly larger stationery selection than other locations, but maybe it was just how they displayed it.

6. Flatiron

   This one has a low ranking just because it’s small. It had a pretty good kitchenwares selection for the size though, and the woman at the checkout was especially friendly.

7. Times Square

   Easily the worst Muji. They barely stock anything and it’s tiny, also you have to go near Times Square to get there.

I hope you find this list helpful in planning your shopping trips to Muji! Let me know what you think in the comments below :)