Shopping malls in New Jersey

Shopping malls in New Jersey have played a major role in shaping the suburban landscape of the state following World War II.

New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the United States, and in the suburban sphere of influence of both New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a comparatively large number of notable malls throughout the state. Paramus, in Bergen County, is one of the largest shopping meccas in the country, with its four major shopping malls accounting for a significant proportion of the over $5 billion in annual retail sales generated in the borough, more than any other ZIP Code in the United States. This high level of retail sales persists despite the fact that the County, in general, and the Borough, in particular, have blue laws that force the malls and other retailers to close on Sunday.

Garden State Plaza was the state's first shopping mall. It opened in three stages between May 1957 and August 1960 and was fully enclosed in 1983. The shopping complex is now known as Westfield Garden State Plaza. The Garden State's second mall-type shopping venue, Bergen Mall (now known as Outlets at Bergen Town Center), was built in Paramus and Maywood and was officially dedicated on November 14, 1957, with great fanfare, as Dave Garroway, host of The Today Show served as master of ceremonies.

The Bergen Mall, which was fully enclosed in 1973, was first planned in 1955 by Allied Stores to have 100 stores and 8,600 parking spaces in a 1.5 million ft² mall that would include a 300,000 ft (91,000 m)² Stern's store and two other 150,000 ft (46,000 m)² department stores as part of the initial design. Allied's chairman B. Earl Puckett confidently announced The Bergen Mall as the largest of ten proposed centers, stating that there were 25 cities that could support such centers and that no more than 50 malls of this type would ever be built nationwide.

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