Let’s go to the mall

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Bergen County is simply full of malls and below you will read some of my opinions about them.

Garden State Plaza – With a ton of parking there is never an available spot. Thousands of people pack into the largest mall in Jersey to buy both their high end gear (Nordstrom, Coach, Louis Vuitton), the average stuff (Gap, J. Crew, Urban Outfitters) their ghetto-fab-off-market kiosk fake products too. I mean this mall is massive with a few chain restaurants, movie theater and 5 department stores.

Bergen Mall – This mall used to be horrible and full of alleged sexual misbehaviors, but now, with all that behind them, it’s shaping up to be a great retail discount outlet. Off 5th, Nordstrom Rack, Century 21, Target & Whole Foods to name a few with a brand new parking deck really makes this mall a great place to visit.

Paramus Park – Eh, it’s OK. People don’t really flock to this mall like they do the GSP. The food court is cool because it’s upstairs and separated by tall escalators.

The Shops at Riverside – High end luxury stores with the same type of people shopping. You can get your Tiffany’s necklace and then buy some Brooks Brothers suits. Wash it down with a book from Barnes and Noble and a burrito from Rose Mexicana. I like Houston’s, but don’t go there if you are famished. I’ve never waited less than an hour to be seated.

Tice’s Corner – I’m a fan of outdoor strip malls. I like Tice’s but I wish it were still an apple farm. It does have the first Apple Store in NJ however, so I guess that’s appropriate.

City Place – This is a stupidly designed strip mall that sits on top of parking deck. I mean, it feels wrong and has so many oversights. There is an escalator up, yet not one down. The exits from the underground parking deck aren’t labeled correctly and the spots are incredibly tight. Once upstairs you shop in the 10 or so stores then leave. At least the Verizon store isn’t overly crowded.

Fashion Center – Aside from Fairway Market, I don’t need to go to this mall. It’s not overly crowded though.

Xanadu – Unfortunately, it’s coming soon and that means more traffic on Route 3.

What are your favorite shopping centers? Leave some comments below!

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Tagged as: bergen mall, city place, fashion center, garden state plaza, malls, paramus park, retail, riverside, Shopping, tices, xanadu

bergenation

Palisades isn't too far, but it seems like everytime I go there, another store closes.
Mira Park

Here's my take from a mom's perspective:
GSP--The new parking spaces has alleviated some of the headache but it's still a dog eat dog parking nightmare on weekends. I've seen one too many fights over spaces--esp. avoid it during the holidays! The kids play area is nice and the carousel, too. You can't beat the variety in terms of high/mid/low end stores, though.
Paramus Park: This is actually a nice refuge from the craziness of GSP mall. They really need a Janie & Jack store, though. Always have parking spaces, it's not too big and lots of kid stores--including Disney Store.
Riverside Mall--because of Cheesecake F the parking is packed on that side. It's too small and no kiddie area unless you count Borders train set. I only go here for Janie & Jack.
Palisades Mall (NY): This mall isn't too far from us and the carpeting on the first floor makes it nice for kids who are prone to falling. Also, it's big vertically instead of spread out so it's good if your kid has a tantrum/accident and you have to make a hasty exit!
www.mirabest.com
Zapp

I like going to the Best Buy at the Fashion Center. Since the whole place is deserted, it's never overly crowded like the GSP Best Buy, and back in the day when Nintendo Wiis were IMPOSSIBLE to find, I picked one up 1-2-3 at the BB in Fashion Ctr. So I don't really mind it so much.

I feel sad about Paramus Park becoming a dead mall. I spent all of my teenage mallrat days there, and it isn't actually a BAD mall at all. It just has to deal with way too much competition from the saturated retail district that is Paramus.