Business Booming at Bergen Town Center

Bergen County has these odd blue laws which mean that you cannot sell many common items on Sunday. It means most stores other than restaurants, supermarkets, and book sellers are closed. In other words, Saturdays are a huge day for business in Bergen County.

With that in mind, we wandered over to Bergen Town Center in Paramus yesterday to check out whether the new Target had opened. It had.

In fact, it was absolutely packed. The whole mall was packed as people were busy making purchases at Target, Off 5th Avenue (Saks), Century 21, Marshalls, the new Nike outlet, GAP outlet, and Filene's Basement.

You wouldn't be able to tell there was a recession by the way the parking lots were stacked and by all the bags people were lugging back to their cars.

It says something about the nature of these particular businesses though that they were as busy as they were. The anchor department stores in Bergen Town Center are selling designer items at steep discounts. That's what they're known for, particularly Century 21. As such, they provide more bang for the buck - which is also what Target is known for. Therefore, they're much better positioned to ride out the recession than other department store chains.

While the Target in Paramus was busy, the existing store in Hackensack wasn't nearly as busy as it had been on a typical Saturday. I expected as much, given the fact that the new Target is just a few miles down the road on Route 4 in a much more prominent location. I think after the excitement wears off, both businesses will settle down into a comfortable traffic pattern.

Business at Bergen Town Center will continue to see big crowds as other stores continue rolling out, including the Whole Foods starting March 19 and Nordstrom's discount.

UPDATE:
Sen. Charles Schumer went on Meet the Press today and claimed that only the government can get the US out of the recession. The new jobs created by the private sector in Paramus would suggest otherwise. It takes a government that knows when to get out of the way of the private sector to allow job growth - in the private sector, rather than sucking revenues out of the pockets of consumers that could instead be spent in businesses and add to the tax revenues.