Visiting 4 NJ Malls in 1 Day - Woodbridge, Menlo Park, Bridgewater, Phillipsburg

What do Woodbridge Center, Menlo Park Mall, Bridgewater Commons, and Phillipsburg Mall all have in common...? I visited them all in one day in a horizontal trek across the central width of New Jersey. The only difference is that 3 of them are thriving, and 1 of them is...not.

I hadn't been to Woodbridge Center is at least 25, maybe 30 years. I barely remember the place. It has 6 anchors, but Lord & Taylor left in late 2019, and Sears is slated to leave in April 2020. Menlo Park Mall used to be 1 story, but was massively renovated in the early 1990's to be 2 floors and very, very upscale. Bridgewater Commons was opened in 1988, and I remember seeing it under construction. Rumors in high school said that the place was going to collapse because if you stand still, you can feel the upper floors shaking. Kids.... We didn't know back then the rule of "That which doesn't bend, breaks." Phillipsburg Mall is...well...on it's last breath. With 2 inline stores remaining and 2 weeks left on it's hourglass of life, these will be among some of the last pictures I take there.

Music used in this video include selected tracks by Mike Snyder, used with standing permission, and YouTube Creative Commons music by Dan Lebowitz ("Wishful Thinking"), ELPHNT ("Gently Onwards"), and Aakash Gandhi ("Borderless"), credited throughout the video.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...