Woodbridge Center Mall
Woodbridge New Jersey
Where Route One meets the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike there is an unbelievably busy strip-mall lined stretch. There sits Woodbridge Center Mall, looming over the strip-malls like a castle over its fiefs. Five anchor stores stud this two-story, cross shaped mall. Sears, JCPenney, Stern’s, Lord & Taylor, and Fortunoff not only draw thousands daily through their doors, but attest to the Woodbridge Center Malls emphasis on reasonable prices and mid-level stores. While Woodbridge Center Mall may offer less decadence than, say, a Bridgewater Commons, more expansive in choice and number are the choices it has to offer with its 235 stores.
While the ‘t” pattern of Woodbridge Center Mall’s lay out is fairly straight-forward, the vastness of the place combined with its daunting number of stores can make comparison shopping tedious. Furthermore, there is little apparent zoning of stores within the mall itself, making comparison shopping difficult without a map and pen. Curiously, and perhaps fortuitously, Woodbridge Center Mall never assembled a food court, opting instead to scatter their fifteen fast-food and sit-down restaurants throughout. This design can either prevent an interruption in shopping by having a restaurant or café “right there”, or it can force a detour across the entire mall to find the restaurant you want.
Whether your intent is a quick in and out or a day-long browsing, this is definitely one New Jersey Mall where you will want to exercise a modicum of planning. You can pick up a map from the information desk near the inside entrance of JCPenney during the mall opening hours 10 am and 9:30pm (11 am to 6 pm on Sundays).