The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, E-commerce spending on Black Friday surged by 7.5% compared to the previous year, setting a new record at $9.8 billion in the United States, as reported by Adobe Analytics. This increase underscores the preference of budget-conscious consumers for seeking the best deals, predominantly online.
Continue reading E-commerce Black Friday Spending surged by 7.5% compared to 2022
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, when it comes to Christmas, there are three types of people:
DECEMBER 23, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2015, 10:07 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Many local shops have been seeing a predictable increase in customers and sales this holiday season.
This increase, according to Walter Boyer, owner of Bookends, is a result of people valuing the convenience of shopping nearby, while also understanding that doing so is good for Ridgewood.
Other merchants credit the unseasonably warm weather with helping to increase sales.
“People want to shop locally,” Boyer said, noting the value shoppers place on customer service. “People are realizing that in order for this town to remain a vibrant town, they need to spend their money locally.”
Dawn Puente, a cosmetics worker at Town & Country Apothecary, echoed this sentiment, explaining that people don’t want to go anywhere near New Jersey’s famous shopping malls close to Christmas.
She also added that Town & Country is a destination for such people, as it gives them some of the benefits of the malls while remaining a local shop.
“People come to the store because the items are unique, and we carry a lot of brands that are only available in department stores,” she said.
Joan Groome, executive director of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce, said, “People come to Ridgewood because of the real ‘downtown feel.’ You do not find wonderful boutiques like we have in the mall.”
As the holidays approached, many scrambled to purchase gifts before it was too late. Boyer said he anticipated his store being quite busy up until Christmas Eve.
He also expected former residents who are visiting family to shop at Bookends, seeking holiday gifts.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/ridgewood-merchants-see-uptick-in-holiday-sales-1.1478813
New Jersey’s Predatory Towing Act makes it against the law to tow off private property unless signs are posted. Westfield had NO signs warning employees they could be towed, and the new signs it put up after 7 On Your Side got involved are too small. 3 feet by 3 feet is the law. These are only 12″ by 18″
Bergen County Consumer Affairs stepped up, after investigators found Westfield Corp. racked up four violations of the Consumer Fraud Act. Just hours later, Bergen County Executive James Tedesco brokered restitution. Westfield will pay back all 48 mall employees who got towed and will install new signs by Christmas that are compliant with New Jersey consumer law.
LARGEST MALL IN NJ TOWS DOZENS OF EMPLOYEES CAR
By Nina Pineda
Tuesday, December 22, 2015 06:04PM
“I thought it was stolen,” said Stefanie Mastbeth, a mall employee said.
That was Mastbeth’s reaction when, after her shift at Michael Kors, her car vanished from the Garden State Plaza parking lot in Paramus.
“I actually have the Onstar app. So we tracked the car and it wasn’t in Garden State Plaza,” Mastbeth said.
She tracked the car to Hackensack and learned it was towed. She had to pay $150 to get it back.
“$150 is nothing to them, but for employees it’s a big deal,” Mastbeth said.
She was one of 48 mall workers targeted and towed by global retail management giant, Westfield Corp., because the lot she says she’s parked in for seven years as a part-time employee is for customers only.
“I didn’t know about it until my car was towed,” Mastbeth said.
https://abc7ny.com/%E2%80%A6/largest-mall-in-nj-tows-dozens%E2%80%A6/1132612/
DECEMBER 12, 2015, 2:12 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2015, 6:47 PM
BY JOHN C. ENSSLIN AND HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
A false bomb threat led to the three-hour evacuation of The Shops at Riverside mall in Hackensack on the penultimate Saturday in the holiday shopping season.
As authorities investigated the threat — scrawled on a bathroom wall, graffiti-style — hundreds of jittery shoppers had to abandon their meals and purchases, and were forced out of the complex and into the parking lot, alongside mall workers.
Hackensack Police summoned the Bergen County bomb squad and ordered the evacuation after a security officer discovered the message written with a marker near a urinal in a lower-level men’s room at around 1 p.m., said Hackensack Police Capt. Timothy Lloyd.
Witnesses said several hundred customers and employees emptied out of the mall in an urgent but orderly fashion as both sound and light alarms went off.
A search by bomb-sniffing dogs and bomb-squad officers found no explosives and the mall — at the intersection of Route 4 and Hackensack Avenue — re-opened around 4 p.m., Lloyd said.
The evacuation also led police to divert traffic on Hackensack Avenue onto Route 4, said Anthony Cureton, a spokesman for the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.
Some two hours into the evacuation, most people had cleared out of the area. On the grass at the outskirts of the complex’s parking lot, though, small groups of employees lingered waiting for their stores and restaurants to reopen. And some shoppers also stayed behind, forced to wait because, they said, authorities wouldn’t allow them to retrieve their vehicles from the mall’s multi-tiered parking garage before the all-clear was given.