It seems logical to speculate that the Wayne Hills Mall suffered a slow yet predictable death blow from its arch enemy, the nearby, yet far larger and popular, Willowbrook Mall, also located in Wayne, NJ, just a mere 7 mile, 15 minute drive south. Why the suburban township of Wayne NJ ever thought it smart to construct two indoor shopping malls seems like a mistake from the beginning. However, as a longtime resident of Passaic County, my best guess is that the duo of malls were built to take advantage of the long established Blue Laws encompassing the numerous mega-malls and nauseating sea of shopping plazas dotting the sprawling suburban hell that is Bergen County, NJ. Such laws in Bergen County ban all shopping on Sundays for religious regions, thus bordering counties capitalized on such nonsense by operating their retail districts seven days a week. However, the fate of the Wayne Hills Mall was always in direct competition with the grandiose Willowbrook Mall, the gem of Passaic County's indoor shopping plazas. The only wonder is that the Wayne Hills Mall operated for as long as it did before succumbing to a long period of vacancy before the rotting stench of defunct retail fronts and deserted food plaza eateries attracted the vultures of demolition.
I, myself, retain a handful of memories from visiting the Wayne Hills Mall as a young child. I can recall pictures with Santa, buying Gameboy Color game cartridges at the now long obsolete Sam Goody franchise, and sometimes being rewarded with a vanilla chocolate twist soft serve ice cream cone from McDonalds, if I behaved as my mother dragged me though the endless mirrored isles of the Payless ShoeSource fun house (as I depicted it as a child). Despite the dinky Wayne Hills Malls' inability to ever stand a change against the mighty boss of the Willowbrook Mall, I still found myself in a stupor as I drove past one winter afternoon and discovered the mall in complete disarray. While the Wayne Hills Mall had technically been shuttered for many years, the interior was always maintained and swept clean, despite being closed to the public. Yet this time around things appeared much different. The power was clearly off and ceiling tiles had decayed into a swampy stew across the floor. The Wayne Hills Mall had finally become a true ruins and with such a discovery I found myself inside for one last shopping spree. One of these decades I will get around to posting up my narrative and complete set of pictures. But for now, this single iPhone snap will suffice to rekindle a series of fond childhood memories as the tide of progress paves over the boxy hulk of the Wayne Hills Mall and construction crews assemble the next chapter of too-big-to-fail corporate box stores.
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