Connect
To Top

Meet Marla Hander of Shop Gotham

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marla Hander.

Marla, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Post-college, I was a career fundraiser, working for 20 years in a variety of non-profit institutions in both Washington DC and NYC. My final and longest tenure was with the American Museum of Natural History in NYC, and it’s there that my interest in founding a tourism company for NYC blossomed. While my role there required working with corporations and high wealth NYC individuals, the Museum itself is a huge destination for visitors and those of us on staff were speaking with visitors in our hallways on a daily basis. I was intrigued by their choice of things to do while in NYC and their sheer excitement to be here.

I myself have always been an avid traveler, using any free time to visit somewhere new. To date, I have visited 6 of the seven continents and 20 countries or so. I value what I see and learn from other cultures, but I also love and value my own city and thus, I set about designing my own way to promote something unique to NYC.

Shop Gotham was born from the knowledge that like myself, women like to shop when they travel for fashion they can’t find at home. NYC offers not only an abundance of options, but it is a leader in the fashion industry. Couple that with visitors’ concerns about navigating their way through NYC and hence, Shop Gotham NYC Shopping Tours was born.

With complete transparency, I will say that I love to shop and when I travel, I make a point of bringing something back – be it a fashion item or home good. While I very much follow fashion and stay current, I had absolutely no training in this arena. Nor had I ever run a small company. But what I did have was a knowledge of how to get “things done” in NYC, a little bit of moxie and alot of excellent training in the workplace in — thoroughness.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The first year was absolutely hair raising. As a new fledgling company with no partner nor investment, I had to learn and do everything on my own. Many things were far outside my wheelhouse, such as internet marketing and building an e-commerce website. All of this along with creating really great Programs to sell in a massively competitive industry (tourism in NYC), in an industry I didn’t know!

Please tell us about Shop Gotham Inc.
Shop Gotham is a specialty tour operator in NYC: our subject is Shopping programs. The object is to take women to shop in places they either cannot access on their own or would likely not find. Our most popular program is The Garment District “insider” Shopping tours, which takes each group to 5 Designer showrooms in the heart of the fashion district. These are places reserved only for store buyers, but through special partnerships, our guests get to shop these showrooms and at prices far below retail. Most people have never stepped inside a showroom, so it’s alot of fun for them.

Along the way, we also created a Student Fashion Education division, which offers educational tours to groups of high school and college students. On these, they might be speaking to fashion designers or perhaps learning about retail merchandising.

I am most proud to say that we are STILL HERE! nearly 14 years later. After we began, many companies have tried to copy us, almost all have failed. Just because you like to shop, doesn’t mean you can run a company!

But in all seriousness, I have a stable of nine tour guides: six of whom have been with me for ten years. It feels very good to know they like working with and for me and that the work is satisfying enough for them to stick around.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood? Well, myself and three other seven years old girlfriends formed a garage band using pots, pans and other household items. We alternated as lead singers.

Pricing:

  • Tickets to our regularly scheduled Garment Center Insider Shopping Tours: $64pp (3 hour program)
  • Private Shopping tours commence at $325 for groups of 4+
  • Self Directed/Self Guided Shopping Tour commence at $60

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Marla J. Hander

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in