Route 22 Retail Center — Attraction in Union

It would be tough to overstate how central Rt. 22 is to shopping in this area. It is the automatic place to go for an item that's not easily found or to find a specialty store that doesn't even have a website. It also has all the major franchise chain stores, so it is often thought of as the place to go for shopping of any kind for people in the area. There is also a great movie theatre, batting cages, or nearly any kind of shopping or entertainment there is. The main problem with "22," as it is warmly known in the area, is the u-turn system it employs as the only way to cross from one side of the route to the other. This makes the traffic nigh-intolerable at times. It also leads to over-use of a dangerous driving maneuver that I know as the "Jersey slide" - my understanding of the term is explained below. By the way it is laid out, 22 often leads me to take a u-turn once I've see the sign for my store on the opposite side, and while I have the opportunity to do so - the u-turns are all within the center thuroughfare of 22, so lane changes are nearly constant for a non-commuter. This turn is almost always made too early, since it sometimes appears my store is accessible from where I turned, but if I take the wrong turn, I am forced to go (sometimes quite far) down the road to the next u-turn, with the store I intended to go to behind me. So, I am forced to turn back around and see if I can make it to my store via the u-turn right after the one I just took, cut across several lanes, quickly and get into my parking lot. The choice is either this or go several turns down 22 to give myself more time to work my way across on the other side. This happens mainly in heavy traffic (which Rt.22 is prone to have). One is often made to aggressively cut across three or four busy lanes of heavy traffic as quickly and ruthlessly as possible - the "Jersey slide" - in an often futile effort to get into my targeted parking lot. My u-turn diatribe aside, 22 is a main artery in North Jersey and central as a stop for shopping of...

I shopped at the Target store. I was afraid that shopping on a Sunday afternoon in Summer that all the good stuff would probably be gone since most young people (their main clientele) shop Fri's + Sat.'s. It 'was' sort of slim pickings, but - I did leave pretty satisfied with just about all I had been looking for that I didn't think I'd find (except for a certain blouse). 😑 I wanted a faux rubber plant that wasn't too small to put in my new living room. Found one that was sort of Medium sized - but I found a way to build it up in height + bought a nice basket for it. Next was a cool kind of summer blouse + denim shorts. Took time but got a nice blouse that was classy yet cool in style (wanted a darker color but can't win em all!) And the shorts...

Took my boyfriend to Dick's to get some discount gear. Wasn't disappointed especially since they price match there. He got some official branded jerseys and I got to look like the frugal baddy I am lol. Also there's WiFi from the babies r us, although not sure how long that'll last now that the chain is going...