which mall is better: garden state plaza in paramus or the palisades center in west nyack (shop, bus)

[pbergen]

Originally Posted by EEEPNJ

Palisades Park: THIS is my favorite. Yes, it's small. But it's also more manageable. Parking is almost never bad. The crowds tend to be less and the caliber of the crowd tends to be better. The negative is you don't have AS many stores, so at times you may have to go elsewhere. But overall, this is my favorite for sanity saving reasons!

you mean paramus park mall?

if so, i agree about it being a more sane, manageable mall. if i need to go to a specific store and paramus park has it, i'd rather go there than the big crazy malls like garden state plaza.

for the same reason, the shops at riverside square is a better choice than garden state plaza if i want to go to an upscale mall without the hassle of crowds and difficult parking.

[NJ Chutzpah]

I only go to malls for the food courts

[AndrewMensch]

NJ has no clothing tax on most items... NY does not. Depending on what you are buying, this may make a difference.

List of largest shopping malls in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[taalman1]

Palisades has a very stinky smell in some places. It was built on top of a landfill.

[Unknown Memory]

*grins evily*

From the person who lives in "the" mall town...., I'll still and forever say Paramus Park!!

Garden State Plaza...
- No sales tax on clothing.
- The "severe" version of the Blue Law in my town prevents all of you guys from shopping on Sundays. (And the Blue Law will exist for Xanadu Meadowlands too for anything retail related.)
- Is ok from Mon-Thurs since it equates to off-season theme park crowds. Friday and Saturday are to be avoided at all cost (although, even those crowds can only do little towards the nations' economy). Sunday, it's nice to go on that day for a movie or to eat dinner. :3 Take advantage of an almost empty parking lot.
- Parking lot still needs to grow somehow. Westfield definitely underestimated the parking space amount (or it wouldn't lead to so much crazy headache for parking). =_=; Increase the parking by adding at least two decks to the garages each. Better than trying to increase the back as most people would want to park closer to the mall.
- Is an upscale mall and changes its setting every couple of years. (i.e. the food court. Geeze, that giant TV screen in the middle of it...)
- This mall is one of the many places that help keep Paramus property taxes lower...
- It is the largest mall in NJ but will be dethroned by this summer.

Palisades Center...
- Sales tax on clothing.
- More floors, less stores, but more parking lots. Rarely had trouble to find parking compared to GSP on the weekends. Then again, I haven't been there in awhile so not sure if that's still the same or not. Only once was there a time when finding a parking spot was tough. The rest of the times, not much of a problem at all.
- Real pro of the mall: IMAX. Since, there is no movie IMAX around the northern NJ area, Palisades IMAX is the closest. I guess that's what we get for having the biggest IMAX in the world used for educational purpose only.
- The inside of the mall is not upscale looking. It's more "outlet" looking and partially reminds me of Jersey Gardens.
- That unused space on the fourth floor. I always felt that area to be a bit eerie, but I understand the reason why no tenant is there.
- Besides an IMAX, there is an indoor skating rink, a bowling alley, laser tag, and a mini amusement park section.
- Kinoookuuunniiiyyyaaa... Sure, move out of Mitsuwa and go up north... You're still better than Sanseido in some ways. Ok ok.. Maybe, I'm so use to Sanseido now that I don't really care anymore.
- The mall is sinking? The locals somehow believe it. For me, I don't know. O.o Is it?

Paramus Park...
- No sales tax on clothing.
- Less stores but still shoppable to some degrees.
- A more local feel.
- Less people.
- More parking spaces.
- Family orienated place.
- Turkey statue.
- No mall traffic.

So, yeah... If I actually had to shop for something, Paramus Park would be my top pick. If I had to go see a movie on a Friday/Saturday, Edgewater MC or Ridgefield Park's Leows get my votes in. When Bergen Ma...I mean, Bergen Towne Centre officially opens everything, I hope that place gets a Paramus Park amount crowd.

[NEWJERSEY1]

Originally Posted by Unknown Memory

*grins evily*

From the person who lives in "the" mall town...., I'll still and forever say Paramus Park!!

Garden State Plaza...
- No sales tax on clothing.
- The "severe" version of the Blue Law in my town prevents all of you guys from shopping on Sundays. (And the Blue Law will exist for Xanadu Meadowlands too for anything retail related.)
- Is ok from Mon-Thurs since it equates to off-season theme park crowds. Friday and Saturday are to be avoided at all cost (although, even those crowds can only do little towards the nations' economy). Sunday, it's nice to go on that day for a movie or to eat dinner. :3 Take advantage of an almost empty parking lot.
- Parking lot still needs to grow somehow. Westfield definitely underestimated the parking space amount (or it wouldn't lead to so much crazy headache for parking). =_=; Increase the parking by adding at least two decks to the garages each. Better than trying to increase the back as most people would want to park closer to the mall.
- Is an upscale mall and changes its setting every couple of years. (i.e. the food court. Geeze, that giant TV screen in the middle of it...)
- This mall is one of the many places that help keep Paramus property taxes lower...
- It is the largest mall in NJ but will be dethroned by this summer.

Palisades Center...
- Sales tax on clothing.
- More floors, less stores, but more parking lots. Rarely had trouble to find parking compared to GSP on the weekends. Then again, I haven't been there in awhile so not sure if that's still the same or not. Only once was there a time when finding a parking spot was tough. The rest of the times, not much of a problem at all.
- Real pro of the mall: IMAX. Since, there is no movie IMAX around the northern NJ area, Palisades IMAX is the closest. I guess that's what we get for having the biggest IMAX in the world used for educational purpose only.
- The inside of the mall is not upscale looking. It's more "outlet" looking and partially reminds me of Jersey Gardens.
- That unused space on the fourth floor. I always felt that area to be a bit eerie, but I understand the reason why no tenant is there.
- Besides an IMAX, there is an indoor skating rink, a bowling alley, laser tag, and a mini amusement park section.
- Kinoookuuunniiiyyyaaa... Sure, move out of Mitsuwa and go up north... You're still better than Sanseido in some ways. Ok ok.. Maybe, I'm so use to Sanseido now that I don't really care anymore.
- The mall is sinking? The locals somehow believe it. For me, I don't know. O.o Is it?

Paramus Park...
- No sales tax on clothing.
- Less stores but still shoppable to some degrees.
- A more local feel.
- Less people.
- More parking spaces.
- Family orienated place.
- Turkey statue.
- No mall traffic.

So, yeah... If I actually had to shop for something, Paramus Park would be my top pick. If I had to go see a movie on a Friday/Saturday, Edgewater MC or Ridgefield Park's Leows get my votes in. When Bergen Ma...I mean, Bergen Towne Centre officially opens everything, I hope that place gets a Paramus Park amount crowd.

You forgot one thing for Paramus Park. Less stores. Less stores = less selection. GSP and Palisades has a variety of stores and selection which attracts more customers than Paramus Park. Am I wrong?

[New Jersey Knight]

Speaking as a Barnes & Noble employee at the Palisades mall, parking can be bad on weekends, and during the holidays. Last holiday season, just about all of my co-workers and me frequently found ourselves in the Home Depot parking lot...sometimes it was even troublesome there. Keep in mind we have an indoor roller coaster as well. I frequently get asked by customers "...is it me, or is the mall shaking?" With the economy the way it is, the mall as a whole has become a very depressing place to be on the weekdays. Not to mention that a good handful of the restaurants on the top floor have closed down in the last year...if I recall, Cheeburger Cheeburger, Dave & Busters, and Fox Sports Bar are all gone. I remember when I was younger and they had that Amazon Rainforest whatever cafe...now THAT was an awesome place.

As some others have said, if the Paramus Park Mall has the store you're looking for, just go there. To me it's always felt like the Garden State Plaza, just on a smaller and less congested scale.

[KMG1]

ITA w/ pbergen, GSP all the way.

[Jaymum]

Dave and Buster's is not gone from the PC; I was just there yesterday. The other places- Cheeburger Cheeburger and Fox Sports Grill, are indeed a memory from what I can gather. I believe they closed down one of the 500,000 Starbucks in the mall as well.

I'll second the "malls are evil" notions. I only rarely visit them. I do, however, vaguely like some of the malls in California. Must be the palm trees outside.

[EEEPNJ]

Originally Posted by pbergen

you mean paramus park mall?

if so, i agree about it being a more sane, manageable mall. if i need to go to a specific store and paramus park has it, i'd rather go there than the big crazy malls like garden state plaza.

for the same reason, the shops at riverside square is a better choice than garden state plaza if i want to go to an upscale mall without the hassle of crowds and difficult parking.

Yes, I meant Paramus Park - lost my mind temporarily!