Paramus Park Mall: Is It a Dead Mall? Paramus, New Jersey. 

My uncle was the guy who cleaned out the waterfall in the 80's. He'd clean it out in his bare feet on Sunday mornings when the mall was closed thanks to NJ Blue laws. During the week in that same time period, after she retired, my grandmother and all her friends would go there and walk the floors window shopping, gossip, and get lunch like a bunch of teenagers would. She always took us there once a year to go school shopping until my brothers and I started high school. My younger brother was scared of the turkey for some reason I can't recall now. Wow, have things changed since I was there before the redo.

I enjoy your videos very much I loved jersey malls . I remember this mall . In 1979 t vist this mall for the first time. I still go there time to time.

Going to Paramus Park on Saturdays to buy tapes and CD's was an adolescent ritual for me. Even though I'm not too fond of those years I still watch this recording with a lot of nostalgia.

This was the mall my parents always dropped me off at to spend hours at every weekend as a kid. It's surprising to hear that it's making enough money. I've seen a lottt of tenants come and go in the last 3-5 years including the departure of most of their big name stores/restaurants that got replaced with these small businesses you saw a lot of. I've heard that the mall is paying tenants to stay. There are 2 other indoor malls in Paramus that are both much much busier, but not as pretty as Paramus Park. The Macy's is so dead that my friends and I once filmed a whole movie we made up in the store with not a single disruption. The only place that is ever busy now is the Stew Leonards and I don't think their customers really wander into the mall. I only go sometimes just to see how much it has inevitably deteriorated since my last visit. Its so sad to see your childhood mall die like this as I have so many fond memories there with friends and family of it being busy.

We’ve went to this mall a few times and it pretty much always busy.

Putting in a movie theater now would be a waste of money & space. They should've done it 10 or 15 years ago.

This mall has changed a lot since the early 90's. I remember seeing the big fountain that's not there anymore. The food court seems to have a lot of vacancies for a mall that sees a lot of foot traffic.

I was a kid in the neighboring town when this mall was built in ‘73. I was last in it in Sept. of ‘22. Nice to see it’s getting a little more active since then, because it still looked nearly deserted then. The food court is still pretty sad, though. Most of the spaces are taken by more stores now. Far cry from the variety of food it used to have. One correction, though. You state that the carousel was at the Sears end, but it was actually in the “elbow” bend halfway between there and the center, right outside Kay Bee Toys (now Build A Bear). And the metal turkey statue used to be down in the bend on the other side before getting moved up to the food court.

What beautiful skylights

A portion of the 2nd level former Sears is occupied by offices for Stew Leonard’s.

I miss the old Paramus Park, lots of memories there. I remember back in the late 90's when they displayed signs that they were going to be updating starting in the early 2000's.

A wonderful place its not so crowded👌👌👌 INTERESTING👍👍👍

Brings back a lot of memories for me - I spent several hours there on opening day (March 14, 1974), and was one of my favorite places to hang out. I also bought my wife's engagement ring there at the Marcus jewelers in 1976.

Oh,Tom if you could have seen the food court ! Two anchors with table service, and such variety of kiosk, Chinese, Greek, pizza, USA Southern, Japanese, Pennsylvania dutch, McDonald's and/or Nathan's (I forgot if one replaced the other) and that sunken dining area overlooking the waterfall

Thanks for the info and the video, I was hoping someone would make a video about this mall (dead mall) I use to go to this mall with my friends all the time

Though i've long since grown up and moved away, this was my childhood mall more than 15 years ago. For most of the video, I was actually thinking "wow, it's doing okay"... and then you got to the food court. That is just depressing. That food court was like a dream as a kid, SO many different delicious options. It's stunning how dead it is now.

I went there one Saturday evening about a month ago, and frankly I was shocked. At its height in the 1980s, the place was packed every weekend. Wherever there was a bend in the corridor of the mall, there was always a logjam of people. And that waterfall really gave it character. Now it’s just a shadow of its former self. There are a lot of empty storefronts, especially in the food court, and the businesses that are open are empty; the most notable is a mini amusement park, complete with bumper cars. I guess they thought that that would attract a lot of people, but it hasn’t. And Stew Leonards hasn’t helped the place the way Sears did. When people shopped at Sears, they wanted to continue their shopping in the rest of the mall area. Since Stew Leonards sells food, as soon as customers make their purchase, they want to get straight to their cars and straight home. And of course people prefer to shop online and not deal with the crowds. I don’t know what they’ll do to bring life back to Paramus Park, but one thing is for sure; it’ll never be what it used to be.

Kind of surprised- I thought it would be a much bigger mall. It does seem to be doing well although the food court seems to have quite a few empty stalls.

Walking by Starbucks is making me drink my Starbucks drink

Do woodbridge or menlo

They changed that fountain at the center into a garden because too many kids were either falling or jumping into it.

One interesting tid-bit I believe to be true, Paramus Park Mall pioneered the "food court". A designated area for dining, in this case occupying the full second floor. The mall ad campaign when it opened was "Have a picnic in the park, Paramus Park" in a sing-song style of course.

The oval in the center of the mall was a fountain fairly recently.

Reminds me of 1979

There must be a maintenance factor. I’ve seen the fountain by Macys getting cleaned and it’s time consuming. And then if a pump fails or something costly happens all of a sudden we now have a planter! It stinks

Thanks

Actually the carousel was not by Stew Leonards... it was right where those trampolines are now... in front of build a bear.... which use to be KB Toys.

I wish sears was still at this mall they can’t leave the Macys as the only department store there

I miss the old Paramus Park from before the renovation. The original waterfall, color scheme, and stores were superior to the ones today. It's also far less of a social gathering place and a lot less active these days, which is a shame. This used to be the place to go on the weekends or on a day off for everyone who lived in the area. It was certainly a major hang out spot in the mid 00's when I was in high school. Now it's just...there. It's holding on but it's really just a shell without a soul nowadays. I hope one day to see this place lively and fun again, but I don't see that happening anytime soon (especially with the insane cost of living in the area nowadays and the lower levels of disposable income). Would hate to see it close though. Bergen county without Paramus Park mall would be pretty depressing. Edit: also I believe my uncle helped plant some of those trees back in the day.

Paramus Park was refurbished, forget when exactly ...

It really is dead most of the time. I mean it's nice it's quiet and all, but when we go like on a Thurs night, dead isn't the word. Maybe 10 people walking around, upstairs most of the restaurants are history..it's a shame because it's a lovely place.

Not to many food options

All Stores Please lower the price of all Military and Local for all brands of Park Products and Accessories and Production Cost Now That's too much $$ The Whole World Now Pray