Registration opens January 1. The Princess Shop logs every prom dress it sells against the buyer’s school, which is why its own advice is to come early and get first pick. That registry is the strongest case for buying a gown in person in New Hartford instead of ordering one off a website and hoping nobody else at the dance had the same idea.
The shop has been dressing the Mohawk Valley since at least 1953.
New Hartford Shopping CenterGenesee Street
Inside the open-air center, right next door to Utica, drawing shoppers from across Central New York.
What the store promises
The store sums up its prom pitch in five points.
Stock
More than 1,000 dresses, with daily shipments, so the floor changes through the season.
Fitting rooms
Twenty-one, so you can try on as many dresses as you want without waiting for one to open up.
Consultants
On the floor to pull styles and help narrow the choice.
Competitor prices
The store will match or beat any competitor’s in-store price.
School registry
Every prom dress registered to your school, starting January 1.
The fitting rooms matter most on a February Saturday, when several groups of friends from different districts arrive at once. The store’s promise is simple: try on as many as you like, with no waiting for a room.
The store is also direct about pricing.
Each Designer sets the prices that stores HAVE TO sell their dresses at. If you find your dress cheaper, IT IS A COUNTERFEIT DRESS!!
That warning, capitals and all, sits on the prom page. The shop’s own dresses are marked at the lowest price each designer allows. If an online price looks too good next to the tag in the store, that is the store’s explanation for it.
Prom is the center of the business. The same store also carries mother-of-the-bride dresses in sizes 4 to 24W, business and casual wear, and Brighton handbags and jewelry, so a mother and daughter can settle both dresses at the same New Hartford counter.
From Proctor to Rome Free Academy
New Hartford Senior High School students are the nearest customers, though the shop pulls from across Oneida County and up and down the valley: Utica’s Thomas R. Proctor High School, Whitesboro, Rome Free Academy, and families from Sauquoit, Clark Mills, Yorkville and Frankfort. Some shoppers come from farther still; one of the reviews on the store’s own site is from a family who drove in from Syracuse.
Extended prom hours run from the end of January to the middle of May, which matches the real shape of the Central New York season: shopping starts in deep winter for a dance that lands in late spring.
Princess Shop prom answers
What is the Princess Shop’s school registry?
Each prom dress sold is logged against the buyer’s school, and the store will not sell that dress to another student headed to the same prom. Registration starts January 1, and earlier shoppers get the widest choice.
Do I need an appointment?
No, but appointments are available. Hours change outside prom season, so the store asks shoppers to check its Facebook page or Google listing for the current day’s hours before driving in.
Will the store match a lower price?
Yes. The Princess Shop matches or beats any competitor’s in-store price, and it marks dresses at the lowest price each designer allows.