Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship in Midtown is widely known as a mecca for fashionistas and trendsetters. In 1924, merchants Horace Saks and Bernard Gimbel opened the high-end department store directly across from Rockefeller Center; it now occupies an entire city block and encompasses ten floors, where cosmetics, shoes and in-store boutiques can all be found.
Its grandeur is only underscored during the winter when Saks celebrates the holiday season by presenting dazzling light shows and windows with extravagant holiday displays. The attraction is not to be missed, but Saks Fifth Avenue is a prominent Midtown fixture year-round. Here are 10 secrets we dug up about its history:
1. Saks Fifth Avenue’s Shoe Floor Has Its Own Zip Code
Saks Fifth Avenue occupies 650,000-square-feet, and a good portion of that is taken up by its eighth-floor shoe department. It’s so big that it even has its own zip code 10022-7463 (“SHOE”), as well as a dedicated Tumblr site. “It is a marketing strategy, said Saks’ PR director at the time, Lesley Langsam Kennedy. “We wanted the department to be a destination and that required a ZIP code. It’s the first time anyone has ever been given permission to do something like this.”
Saks Fifth Avenue was the first business to claim a “vanity zip code” in August 2007, when the United States Postal service launched a program to sell zip code extensions to businesses.
Next, read about other buildings with exclusive zip codes in New York City.