December 26 is the date to circle. That is when The Prom Shop unlocks for a new season, and from then until late April the store on the frontage road along Highway 14 fills with shoppers from across southeast Minnesota and well beyond. The rest of the year the doors stay shut while the staff buys, tracks trends and gets ready for the next rush.
Prom is the whole business here. The shop advertises itself as a top ten prom store in the country and the largest prom store in the tri-state area, and WCCO viewers voted it the best prom dress store in Minnesota. From December through March it keeps between 1,000 and 1,200 dresses in stock at any given time, and the inventory is refreshed weekly as styles sell through. Byron High School is the hometown school, and Kasson-Mantorville High School sits just up the highway to the west.
What a visit to the Byron showroom looks like
The floor was built for trying things on and seeing them move. There are 15 fitting rooms, an 18-foot lighted runway, an interactive photo mirror for selfies, a grass wall and a customer collage wall where past shoppers end up on display. Each shopper works with one of the store's style experts, and the Rochester Post Bulletin reported that the shop sells to more than 300 schools, with store manager Jacob Booms telling the paper, "We really specialize in the prom shopping experience rather than just shopping."
The store names its designer lines and gives three of them separate sections.
Designer lines
Separate sections
- Amarra
- Ashley Lauren
- Kate Parker
On top of the designer lines sits a set of private-label gowns made only for The Prom Shop. Those cannot be reordered once they sell, which is one reason the staff tells shoppers that a dress they love may not be there tomorrow. The store sells hundreds of dresses a week and does not hold gowns while you think it over.
Designer pieces start in the $300s. Sizes 00 through 24 are carried in stock, and the special-order window closes early; some dresses sell out at the designer as early as January.
On the floor
Paid in full, carried to the car
- Every dress on the floor can go home the same day
Special order
From the designer
- Sizes 00 to 34, depending on the designer and the time of year
- Up to four months if the style is not already in production
When the store says to come
- On a weekday, the store's recommended time. Outside of school holidays like MLK Day and Presidents Day, there is typically no wait for a fitting room.
- On weekends and school holidays, right at opening or a couple of hours before close, the quietest stretches. When the store hits capacity, a pager and text system holds your place on the waitlist.
The store is usually closed on Tuesdays, but on VIP Tuesdays you can rent the entire floor for two hours for $240, with up to four people trying on and two guests each. An appetizer and beverage platter can be pre-ordered.
Why families plan whole days around it
The store does not take appointments during its regular season, and that open-door setup pulls a wide net. Rochester sits a few minutes east, which puts students from Mayo, John Marshall and Century high schools close by, along with Stewartville High School on the far side of the city. The store mentions license plates from Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota in the parking lot on any given day, and some customers drive six or more hours. A few fly in.
That distance explains how the business is set up: nobody leaves Byron with a receipt and a four-week wait. If you find the one, you can carry it to the car. For families who would rather spread out the cost, the layaway program takes $200 down with bi-weekly payments as low as $100.
Sizing is the other thing the staff spends a lot of time on. Designer prom sizes often run small, and a shopper might wear a 2 in one style and a 6 in another from the same label, so the consultants pull by fit rather than by the number on a tag.
Shopping The Prom Shop in Byron
When does The Prom Shop open for the next prom season?
The store reopens on December 26 and runs through late April.
What happens if my size is gone?
With over a thousand gowns on the floor, staff will first look for something close. If you have your heart set on one style, they will measure you and check whether the designer can still make it. When a special order is not possible, they will look at whether an alteration could make a different size work.