New Jersey fact of the day

Paramus is one of the nation’s strongest shopping magnets, generating roughly $5 billion a year in retail sales, an amount about equal to the gross domestic product of Cambodia, Nicaragua or the sultanate of Brunei.

…In an already densely populated state, Paramus has more parking spots than people…It is a Faustian bargain that brings 200,000 cars a day into town during December, turning the roads into virtual parking lots, but also keeps property tax rates in Paramus relatively low – $1.55 per $100 of assessed value, compared with $3.88 in Maywood, the next town over.

…Already, Paramus has 320 stores with more than $1 million in annual sales each, second in the country only to the 10021 ZIP code on the East Side of Manhattan.  The vacancy rate for stores is 3 percent, several percentage points below the rate for similar real estate elsewhere.  Some properties are filled even before the previous tenants move out.

Here is the full story.  I liked this bit:

Irma Weishaupt and her husband, Lou, who have lived in Paramus for 45 years, say they stick to side streets and sometimes leave town to shop.