Best place to buy office chair in NYC & specific chair recommendations

February 21, 2020 7:32 AM

I'm looking to buy a new office chair for my home office in NYC. I want to visit a brick-and-mortar store so that I can sit down and try some actual chairs. (I do not wish to order online.) Can you suggest any stores? Also, if there are any particular chairs you've purchased and love, please tell me about them! Thanks!
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell to Home & Garden (2 answers total)

I tend to buy my chairs at Staples, who (in my area, at least, in LA) seem to consistently have the largest selection of assembled chairs out on the floor, more so than Office MaxDepotMax, whatever they're called now). They do have some high-end manager chairs (at the Over $200 price point) as well as mid-range and cheap chairs.

Tip: before you buy your chair, order heavy duty gas cylinders online. Even if you are not a larger person, they can just tolerate more sit-stand cycles than the dirt cheap ones you get with the chair, and once you put a cylinder in a chair it can be an ordeal to remove.

At the end of the day the chair that's best for you will depend entirely on how you are configured. I generally use an aftermarket seat cushion so I'm less concerned about the sit zone, but I care a LOT about chair arms (I need padded, and they must be adjustable) and recently found out I do actually need a full back/head rest instead of a mid-back height even though I only sit back once every few days.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:43 AM on February 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

When I bought my chair the thing my butt and back liked most was a Steelcase Leap. They're still sold, but Steelcase has introduced some newer, fancier things since then. My second favorite was probably the Humanscale Freedom (also available with headrest), but seeing as how I liked it less than the Leap and it was more expensive to boot, I didn't think too much about it.

I hated everything Herman Miller sold at the time. Lots of people love Aeron chairs and people will probably drop into this thread to tell you to buy a used one, but I sat on one for a couple years at one job and I hated it because it didn't distribute my weight in a good way and I'd end up with the circulation in my legs cut off until I stood up for a few minutes. If that doesn't happen to you, and if the ventilation is important, a used Aeron might be the thing for you. The original Mirra had a hard, non-conforming construction but the Mirra 2 looks like it might be tolerable and the Embody just seems like a good, modern task chair.

Television shows seem to like the Haworth Zody (once I knew what chair it was I couldn't stop seeing it) but I don't know that I'd prefer it over a Leap. The selling point seems to be that it has a more traditional seat combined with a breathable mesh back, so that combination might be what you want. Knoll chairs are well made but don't stand out in comparison to any of the chairs listed above.
posted by fedward at 11:20 AM on February 21, 2020