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I don't think I have been to any mall in over 10 years. It's hard to imagine how these malls are still surviving as they really serve no purpose other than a hangout spot for wayward teenagers.
I used to be like you ... a 'city person'. I used to live in the city and or outskirts and hang out in the city to get all my stuff there. I used to make fun of the mall and suburban people and their 'unhip' ways.
But it is literally almost impossible to live in NJ (other than JC or Hoboken) and not go to the mall. There's too many cold and crappy days and if you happen to be sick or your wife/husband gets a disease or something, forget about it. Most of the good movie theatres are now also in malls. And if you have kids, a mall is the place to walk around when its really crappy outside.
It's almost unavoidable to have weekends where you just go to the mall.
If I were wealthy, all things considered, I probably would prefer to live in the city. But the mall is also much more convenient.
What I'm trying to say in a round about way is ... the mall actually serves a very useful purpose.
if you have kids, a mall is the place to walk around when its really crappy outside... What I'm trying to say in a round about way is ... the mall actually serves a very useful purpose.
I pride myself on taking a 2-3 mile powerwalk 4-5 times each week at D&R Canal State Park. However, when the weather is really crappy, outside walking is just not on my agenda, so... off I go to Bridgewater Commons for my extended walk.
Yes, even if one is not a shopper, malls do serve a very useful purpose, but--unfortunately--those of us who are not shoppers might not help to keep the malls open.
Yes, Menlo Park Mall is... decent... albeit very crowded with kids.
However, the type of merchants at Menlo Park is drastically different from what you find at The Mall at Short Hills. Does Menlo Park Mall have smaller stores like Tiffany, Bulgari, Burberry, and Penhaligon's? Does Menlo Park Mall have Bentleys, Porsches, and Rolls Royces on display in the walkways?
Even the Nordstroms store at Menlo Park is very different from the one at Short Hills Mall. In addition to not carrying a lot of the high-end merchandise at their Menlo Park store, they have actually closed the upper level of the store to customers. Management wouldn't shut down an entire level of their department store if the local clientele was buying merchandise in sufficient quantities.
The Mall at Short Hills essentially replicates the shopping experience of Fifth Avenue in NYC, while Menlo Park is just a decent-looking, modernized version of your generic shopping mall that can be found in every state.
HAHAHAHA! So anything less than Bentley's Porsches, and Rolls Royces are "....decent"?
That's like saying you're middle class making 250k as a single earner.
Yes, Menlo Park Mall is... decent... albeit very crowded with kids.
However, the type of merchants at Menlo Park is drastically different from what you find at The Mall at Short Hills. Does Menlo Park Mall have smaller stores like Tiffany, Bulgari, Burberry, and Penhaligon's? Does Menlo Park Mall have Bentleys, Porsches, and Rolls Royces on display in the walkways?
Even the Nordstroms store at Menlo Park is very different from the one at Short Hills Mall. In addition to not carrying a lot of the high-end merchandise at their Menlo Park store, they have actually closed the upper level of the store to customers. Management wouldn't shut down an entire level of their department store if the local clientele was buying merchandise in sufficient quantities.
The Mall at Short Hills essentially replicates the shopping experience of Fifth Avenue in NYC, while Menlo Park is just a decent-looking, modernized version of your generic shopping mall that can be found in every state.
I'm sure the Nordstrom in Short Hills is probably a lot different from most other Nordstroms. The Mall at Short Hills is one of the wealthiest malls in the country. I never heard of any other mall to be in the same league.
If you were as old as I am, you would remember when The Mall at Short Hills was an open-air mall, as was Menlo Park Mall.
When Cherry Hill Mall first opened, it was quite a sensation because it was one of the first enclosed malls in NJ.
The big problem with open-air malls is that they do very little business during the winter and on very rainy days.
Of course! That's how it was when I was growing up. Then they built Paramus Park, which was a nicer, fancier mall in comparison back then, so GSP turned around and enclosed, too. Then they expanded and got HUGE, and now Paramus Park looks like nothing.
The last expansion to Garden State Plaza did me in. I'm like, nope, too big now.
I like Paramus Park relatively speaking. But yeah, I remember it was the fancy mall at one time
I used to be like you ... a 'city person'. I used to live in the city and or outskirts and hang out in the city to get all my stuff there. I used to make fun of the mall and suburban people and their 'unhip' ways.
But it is literally almost impossible to live in NJ (other than JC or Hoboken) and not go to the mall. There's too many cold and crappy days and if you happen to be sick or your wife/husband gets a disease or something, forget about it. Most of the good movie theatres are now also in malls. And if you have kids, a mall is the place to walk around when its really crappy outside.
It's almost unavoidable to have weekends where you just go to the mall.
If I were wealthy, all things considered, I probably would prefer to live in the city. But the mall is also much more convenient.
What I'm trying to say in a round about way is ... the mall actually serves a very useful purpose.
I'm not a city person, though. I moved to the suburbs (West Orange) nearly 10 years ago and have never gone to the mall. I do 90% of my shopping online (mostly Amazon prime). If I want to walk around or kill time on the weekends with my kids, I do that outside and in parks. The last place I would bring my kids to is a mall.
I used to love malls. My father used to take my brother and me to Garden State Plaza almost every Saturday evening when we were kids, with an occasional Paramus Park or Willowbrook trip thrown in for variety. We’d walk the whole mall, and Pop would buy us dinner. The Chinese stand in the GSP Food Court used to sell plates of fried rice for $1.25 and egg rolls for about $.90 in the mid-80s just after they enclosed the mall. My father, who was not a man of means, was thrilled that he could feed us for less than $5.
Even when I got older, I still loved malls. I went two or three times a week with friends in college. I hit ‘em all... The Plaza, The Park, Willowbrook, Rockaway, Woodbridge, Nanuet, even A&S Plaza in Manhattan.
But things started to change in the latter half of the 90s... I can pinpoint exactly when my disillusion with malls began. It was right around when Garden State Plaza completed its 1996 expansion. Parking, which was never great, became a nightmare. The crowds grew larger and more unruly. And, ironically, while the mall was hoping to target a more upscale crowd with its new fancy stores, the mall crowds actually became more gangsta. I’m not talking gangsta in terms of skin color, I’m talking in terms of attitude... as in a lot more people had real nasty ones.
Yeah, I still hit up the malls for a few years after that. I went to Palisades Center a bunch of times after they opened, but aside from the fact that the inside looked like it was straight out of Blade Runner, it got old quick.
Then, the nail in the coffin... Paramus Park removed the see-thru elevator and waterfall in 2001. I think that was the day malls truly died for me.
Today, I absolutely hate malls. Braving the Garden State Plaza is a death wish. The crowds are huge, rude, and crude, and the stores are overpriced. Even the open town centers are a mess. The Bergen Town Center is a zoo. Bring back the ghost town Bergen Mall. I do hope they do something with the even more haunted Ledgewood Mall. But they’ll probably turn that into a hipster circus too.
The one good thing is that just as my disillusionment with malls increased, my fascination with something else began to grow... online shopping. Now, the mall comes to me!
I'm not a city person, though. I moved to the suburbs (West Orange) nearly 10 years ago and have never gone to the mall. I do 90% of my shopping online (mostly Amazon prime). If I want to walk around or kill time on the weekends with my kids, I do that outside and in parks. The last place I would bring my kids to is a mall.
Well, shopping is actually fun for me. And I am still bemoaning the death of bookstores and record stores. That was so many of my Saturday afternoons when I lived in NYC.
So, the mall replaces walking down Astor Place and Union Square ... to an extent.
To be honest, there's really only so much you can do in the suburbs. Sooner or later, you just end up at the mall.
Even in most cities, sooner or later, you end up at the mall.
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