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I'm just curious, which mall is better?? for some reason my mom hates both malls saying the parking is riduculous for both and that it is always crowded. your experiences or opinion?
Palisades Mall is my preference. I can't stand malls but if I had to choose I'd go with Palisades. Although traffic getting out of that place even during non holidays is absolutley horrendus. Garden state is ok, not as big , BUT during the holiday it's like mobbed there's no space to breathe or even sit in the food court.
The "yuppifying" of malls in the North Jersey area over the past decade or so has made me pretty much avoid them. Both Palisades and GSP are absolute nightmares. The parking is slightly better at Palisades. Going to the Plaza anytime during opening hours is taking your life into your hands. I've gotten there some times at 9 a.m. and the lot was almost full. (How? The stores weren't even open yet! But that's when you have to go to have a chance at a parking spot.) The GSP's traffic has gotten significantly worse since they built the addition in 1996.
GSP is a bit bigger, but I think Palisades has more unique stores and restaurants, and is easier to navigate, so I give the edge to Palisades. But I can't stand the crowds and traffic at either place.
But I agree that if I have to go to a mall, I also prefer Paramus Park. It's much smaller, but its quieter and you actually have a fighting chance of leaving there alive with your car intact. But knowing the way things are going, they'll probably find a way to turn that place into a giant super mall too.
Palisades: This is one of the most unattractive malls (interior) that I've ever seen. I don't know why they made it so "ugly." The crowd here varies from ok to REALLY bad. Parking is a DISASTER. The store selection is decent and they have some fun attractions - like Dave & Busters, IMAX theater, indoor ferris wheel, etc. I only go on occassion - usually on an "off" day when the weather stinks and we want to entertain the troops for a few.
GSP: BIG and aesthetically pleasing. Your standard Mall with your standard stores. Parking is awful. The crowd tends to be rather bad unless you go on a Tuesday afternoon. It's very big and unless you really need to be there, I don't usually go. Lovely Carousel by the way.
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!
If you count the conference rooms in the basement, Palisades Center is 5 levels. It's the only place I've ever seen a Home Depot with a BJs on top of it, with a Target on top of that! The place is ridiculous (and very ugly). I love all of the restaurants on the 4th Floor (Chilis, Chevys, among others). The storefront inside the mall looks like one of their stand-alone stores. You can enter the storefront and eat "inside" or you can eat "outside" at tables set up in the mall corridor. It looks so stupid to me.
IMO, malls are best avoided. All the major mall chains have stores in the city that are larger, and close to a subway station (escape). I'll take PATH or walk to Newport mall if I have to, and take advantage of 3.5% sales tax! Last time I went to Garden State Plz was last Presidents Day. The traffic and parking were so horrendous, I swore the place off forever.
garden state plaza and the palisades center are very different malls. i don't know if you could say that one mall is "better" than the other - it really depends on your age, shopping tastes, disposable income, and the type of crowd you like or dislike.
personally, i prefer garden state plaza over palisades center because it has a little bit of everything: a mix of standard mid-level mall stores (old navy, macy's, abercrombie & fitch, gap), high-end stores (neiman marcus, nordstrom, louis vuitton, tourneau), and less expensive stores (jc penney, aldo, claire's, and various cheap trinket/accessory shops). it also has stores that are perceived as "urbane" or "nyc-specific" - places that you might not necessarily expect to see in a suburban mall, such as c.o. bigelow, ruehl, urban outfitters, and american apparel.
unfortunately, the mall's owners recently replaced the old, small, detached movie theater in the outside surface parking lot with a huge multiplex attached to the new wing near the borders bookstore. this means that a mall that had always been insanely crowded has gotten even worse in that regard.
clearly, the mall's owners are trying to attract all types of people: old and young, singles and families, rich and working-class, white and minority. probably more than almost any other mall in the greater nyc area, it's a regional draw that brings in lots of people from nyc and other parts of nj and upstate ny.
also, gsp is a much more attractive mall than the palisades center, which looks like a cavernous, ugly, gray warehouse. the mall's appearance, along with its lack of high-end stores, are the reasons why i rarely go there. it's just a very depressing place to browse and shop. but then again, it's a different kind of attraction than gsp - the entire top floor is dedicated to restaurants and entertainment options (including an IMAX theater, which bergen county doesn't have) and, as another poster mentioned, it has an indoor ferris wheel. so unlike gsp, which is a shopper's mecca that happens to have a few non-shopping diversions, palisades center aims to be a mixed shopping and entertainment experience rather than a pure retail space. in that sense, it's more child-friendly than gsp, which is probably not a good place to go for a young mother with very young children.
gsp can be great if you're a teenager who likes to "people watch" and browse through a million stores. in fact, it might be the best mall in the entire region for that purpose, as the clientele is extremely diverse and it's always super crowded on friday nights and saturdays. it's also great for the nyc day-tripper or recent manhattan transplant who has higher-end yuppie tastes and isn't happy shopping at sears.
it's funny, b/c garden state plaza used to be an average-sized mall with mostly average stores prior to its big expansion in 1996. then it doubled in size, and shortly afterward the palisades center (which is even bigger) opened in rockland county. now it seems that most malls, with a handful of exceptions, are aspiring to become bigger in every aspect, with plenty of dining and entertainment options. it's the whole idea behind the xanadu project in the meadowlands, which is billed as an entertainment complex but is really a mall in disguise.
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