What is the future of mall shopping in North Jersey? We asked these executives

The annual Big Santa Lighting and Holiday Drone Show at Garden State Plaza on Nov. 11 was mobbed.

Traffic to get into the mall. Traffic to get out of the mall. Crowds everywhere.

Among the estimated crowd of thousands who came to Paramus to celebrate the opening of the holiday season was Sammy Maher of Midland Park. His kids were spinning around him, holding on to him and exclaiming, “Daddy, come on!”

“Just this alone was a hassle, just to find parking and get here,” he said. And that's why, over the past decade, he has taken more to online shopping.

“Things have gotten a lot easier, even for trying on clothes. You can actually look at them yourself,” Maher said.

An October Gallup poll found that 93% U.S consumers will do at least some of their holiday shopping online, and 47% of shoppers will buy all or most of their gifts online.

As we enter the holiday shopping season, e-commerce has dramatically changed the retail landscape. According to the National Retail Federation, consumers are expected to spend between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion shopping through November and December, of which $273.7 billion to $278.8 billion will be online and other "non-store sales."

It's one of the slowest paces in years, but executives and analysts say there is hope for malls yet.

The perks of in-person shopping, experiences like high-end restaurants and bowling alleys, as well as incorporating everyday life — from housing to gyms to dry cleaners — are all strategies malls are undertaking to ensure their success in the years to come.

The perks of shopping in person

Analysts said shopping at malls in person has benefits.

“When shoppers are in a time crunch, the convenience of in-store shopping seems to be the answer. There’s less uncertainty versus online,” said Emily Arft, who sits on the retail research team for commercial real estate analytics firm Green Street.

Factors like shopping delays, the incorrect size and an “expectation versus reality gap” with the product you ordered make in-person shopping a better option, Arft said.

“Let’s look at COVID: Everybody was shopping online. People had to adapt to even shopping more online. If something was going to kill brick-and-mortar, that would have,” said Matthew Harding, chief executive officer of Levin Management Corp., a North Plainfield-based commercial services firm.

Malls have experiences

Mall executives we spoke to said it’s beyond just shopping and buying a product. It’s about the experience of being at the mall. It’s about getting out of the house and being with friends and family.

Real estate services firm JLL, in fact, did a study on how shoppers plan to spend their money this holiday season.

According to the study, shoppers expect to spend $958 on holiday goods, of which $218 will be on “entertainment or holiday-related experiences.”

“It’s all about experience,” said Charles Cristella, executive vice president of retail at JLL. “It’s the key word.”

Rather than a sweater, you might get treated to a fine dining experience at one of North Jersey’s malls, Cristella said.

Picture a rodízio-style steak and skewered meat lineup at Fogo de Chao at Garden State Plaza or Italian cuisine at Carpaccio at The Avenue at American Dream in East Rutherford.

“We’re not a mall. We’re an entertainment retail complex,” said Bryan Gaus, senior vice president general manager for American Dream.

“You can spend the day here," he said. "Where else in the area, I mean if you wanted to, can you go skiing in the morning, jump on a roller coaster, grab a bite to eat, then go to DreamWorks waterpark and be 85 degrees when it’s snowing outside?”

At over 3 million square feet, the American Dream mall, owned by Canadian developer Triple Five, boasts an indoor amusement park with roller coasters, an indoor water park, a 300-foot Ferris wheel, indoor miniature golf and ice skating, and the only year-round indoor ski and snowboard park in North America.

Moreover, American Dream has over 200 stores — including flagships for Toys R Us and Babies R Us — and over 50 dining options, including fast casual and sit-down.

Traditional malls are going all out

At Garden State Plaza, mall executives are pulling out all the stops for the holiday shopping season.

“The holiday shopping experience, it becomes tradition” for friends and family, said Wesley Rebisz, the mall’s senior general manager.

“There’s a very strong value in having the experience of walking through the property, having the gorgeous holiday decor around you for ambiance, and then being able to touch, feel, smell, visualize the actual product that you’re buying and have that instant gratification and being certain that what you’re buying is exactly what you want,” Rebisz said.

Since opening in 1957, Garden State Plaza, now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, has become a staple shopping center for Bergen County and the surrounding region.

Rebisz said the mall is really in the business of shopping and “memories” for its patrons.

“We created more ways than ever to immerse themselves in the magic of the holidays, like the recent holiday drone show," he said.

"Now, our shoppers are really looking to have immersive experiences and have photo opportunities and neat things that they could take photos with and post on social media and share with the rest of the world, and that’s how we’re really taking the holidays to the next level and adding the various immersive experiences,” Rebisz continued.

You can get your shopping done at Garden State Plaza and check out the Santa Set and Mrs. Claus kitchen while you’re at it, he said.

At The Mall at Short Hills, a luxury destination in its namesake town in Essex County, the entertainment “is the fashion we provide,” said Bill Taubman, president and chief operating officer of the mall’s owners, Taubman Realty Group.

That entertainment “spans everything from luxury to mainstream retailers, and that’s the experience our specific customer desires,” he said.

For example, customers at The Mall at Short Hills can find luxury brands including Cartier, Chanel, Dior, Fendi, Gucci and Hermes, Taubman said. And there is the Canada Goose Cold Room, which can “re-create the temperature of the highest peaks in the world,” Taubman continued, as well as celebrity book signings, “private trunk shows and styling events.”

That logic followed at The Shops at Riverside, just off Route 4 in Hackensack, which boasts brands like Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, Jimmy Choo, Tod's and Max Mara.

Especially for those luxury brands, "shoppers really want to come and shop in real life," said Melissa Koronakis, area director of marketing at Simon Property Group, which owns the mall.

"They want to walk out with their package. They would like to touch and try the merchandise before they actually make their purchase," she said.

Combining shopping, errands and fun

For Ryan Hidalgo, senior general manager at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, it’s about being a part of “everyday life” rather than the more rare occasions that malls may once have been.

“This is the place where ‘oh, this time I’m going to Willowbrook to go to the Apple store, but then tomorrow I got to go to Willowbrook to pick up groceries at BJ’s, and oh, I’m on my way to work so I’ve got to stop by Willowbrook and fill up my gas, and then Friday night’s date night so we’re going to go to Willowbrook for dinner,’” he said in a phone interview.

In addition to the typical retail offerings, Willowbrook has both a BJ’s Wholesale Club and a Costco discount warehouse on its property, which includes gas stations. And there’s an array of retail and dining options at the mall.

There also are “experience” options, like laser tag, a Dave & Buster’s arcade and a trampoline park.

"Patrons are having something to eat. We’re adding D1 sports training, a gym membership personal training kind of concept. You can even kind of come here and work out before anything else you need to do here,” Hidalgo said.

Bergen Town Center in Paramus is offering more day-to-day shopping experiences to its patrons, in addition to what you might typically find at a mall.

“We’re anchored by a Target and a Whole Foods, which is very unconventional compared to a traditional mall. Those are very daily-needs shopping experiences,” said Scott Auster, executive vice president and head of leasing at Urban Edge Properties, which owns Bergen Town Center.

At Rockaway Townsquare in its namesake town in Morris County, the value comes in part from the deals and promotions offered by the mall's retailers, said Jen Rabulan-Bertram, director of marketing and business development.

"While retailers may not need as many stores as in the past, they are realizing more than ever the value of physical stores," Rabulan-Bertram said.

Living at the mall?

Two mall properties in North Jersey are pursuing apartment complexes: Bergen Town Center and Garden State Plaza.

“Malls are in great positions if they start looking at them as real estate, and we’re not looking at them as only shopping venues,” said Cristella, of JLL.

A mixed-use apartment complex is in the works at Bergen Town Center. It will feature 456 units along with ground-floor retail, private courtyards, pools, fitness areas and game rooms.

At Garden State Plaza, 1,384 apartment units are in the works, including a downtown area and “town green" where residents could gather for outdoor events or go out for a stroll in a notoriously car-centric part of the mall property.

“Live, work, eat and play,” Cristella said. “That is the future. If you think of where shopping centers are, these malls, they’re in great markets, they have easy access, and they’re usually near major arteries to get to, using our neck of the woods, Philadelphia or New York City.”

Rebisz, of Garden State Plaza, agreed, saying it is “the kind of future of where our business is going.”

“It's integrating … the live-work portion into the current offering that we have, which is shop and dine,” he said.

Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.

Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: North Jersey malls: What is the future of mall shopping?