Essex Green Shopping Center — Attraction in West Orange

Its a fine place but the movie theater and shoprite tend to attract a few low class people. They tend to speak and yell out during the movie, especially when they come to the theater directly from the TGI Friday's restaurant after having been drinking alcohol for an hour or two. The shoprite gets many people who are shopping with food stamps which ends up with people who load up their shopping carts to the absolute brim which can cause a great deal of traffic/long lines at the registers. Most of my complaints about Essex Green deal with the quality of the customers rather than the quality of the businesses themselves. If you need to go to a supermarket and you are paying with your own money then you would be better off going to the Shoprite in Livingston. Even though it is smaller and a bit older than the West Orange Shoprite, it is a much better experience because of the higher-end customers spending mostly their own money which leads to shorter and...

There have been many changes to this shopping center over 50 years. I feel the a difference in energy coming from this place because shopping isn't what it used to be. The excitement of going shopping has left the building literally. Today's consumer has too many choices of what to buy and where to buy it and the internet is needed to find out where the best deals are. Recently, I walked in the back corridor between the front and back facing buildings and felt as if I was in an alley way. It used to be a bustling plaza at one time. This would be a great area to allow local craft vendors and such to have a marketplace bi-monthly instead of overcrowded parking lots on Main Street. Maybe that new vibe can bring back some of the excitement that is missing...

I love the Essex Green Shopping Center. I can see that some changes have taken place since I last visited. They still have the PetCo store which is great. I normally go to the center to check out a movie. The movie theater is one of the coolest, most comfortable and quaint dine-in theaters in Essex County. I was happy to see a Panera Bread restaurant added to the shopping strip. There are many stores (clothing, food, supermarket, miscellaneous) to choose from and there's even a TGI Friday's across the way if you want to have a real dinner after shopping. All the way down the hill on the other end of the strip is a nice hotel in case you're visiting and need somewhere to stay. It's a small strip packed with a...