Silver Sun Mall — Local services in Beach Haven

Once upon a time in it's heyday a now long, distant generation ago, this "mall" (which it really isn't much of one anymore, but is now nothing more than a glorified open floored store which highly resembles a third world flea market more than anything, while also 100% totally blatantly screaming "tourist trap" like never before at the same time) was truly an amazing, happening, and overall wonderful place, back when it was known as Pier 18. I even had the pleasure of working there when I was a teenager the last three years it was that too! Now it's not even a mere shell of the great place it once was anymore, and there's virtually nothing left of it, besides what you see in the front, along with the big clothing store in the middle (which replaced several stores which were once at the center of the building), pretty much. Other than a new seafood eatery on the side of the place (which I may add is pretty good, and well worth a try), there are officially no more separate businesses within the inside of here like there used to be. There are a few wall divisions still left over on the sides, which used to be some of the many nice, cute, little stores from back in the day, all of which are closed/gated off, with nothing left of them now, which are just being used for junk storage, and nothing more these days. Although I may be a true conservative myself, I did find the many flags, and merchandise advertising their extreme right wing political beliefs to be appalling to say the least, like you're walking into some kind of R-rated movie, and is not for the fate of heart for certain. I'd mostly expect to see stuff like this within the many shady stores which contain the somewhat tacky merchandise on the boardwalks in Seaside, and/or Wildwood, but not here though! The building is also very dirty, and unorganized, (while the smell of it resembles something reminiscent of an uncleaned, and highly toxic esc. fish tank) as you're almost immediately greeted by piles of shipping boxes, containing unsold merchandise going to waste that'll never sell as soon as you enter, along with wads of messy storage items in general. This of which already adds to the place's highly tepid, shabby, and overall mundane, depressing atmosphere. One of the hallways has been fully closed off for a while now, while they blocked off the back end of the other, which means you're forced to walk through the aforementioned clothing store if you exit, or enter from the mall's rear, as if they're desperately trying to get you to buy something, anything from here now! They even had the stupid audacity to close off their once very convenient to use customer bathrooms almost a decade ago as well! Having them open when they were may have gotten them some much needed extra sales, which has surely cost them more money than it's saved, with this being among the latest boneheaded decisions the owner(s) made too! You also have to take whatever purchases you make up all the way to the very front of the building's counter (where the food court from the Pier 18 era once was), which is a bit of a pain, but often isn't, simply due to there being so very few people in here at any given time, let alone actually buying things. Even walking through the front with how highly cluttered it is there is a real huge hassle in itself. With how far to the bottom of the barrel this once booming enterprise has fallen, I have no idea how it's still possibly going as we speak. That despite even if they apparently must be making SOME kind of money in order to (just barely) stay afloat however! I'm guessing it'll finally be put out of it's misery in the not too distant future, and the sooner this hole gets filled with water at last, the better too! I'll miss it whenever that happens at last, even if the management will have nobody to blame but themselves in the end, once that day comes when all will be said and done. What I wouldn't give to have the late, great Pier 18 back in it's wonderful glory if only, which Silver Sun both can, and will never dare be too.

UPDATE! The place...

I went here with my friends after a day at the beach and we were looking around just for fun. None of us were being loud or obnoxious, just looking at the stuffies and sunglasses. Despite the fact that we were being respectful, the woman behind the counter came over and told us to “stop touching the merchandise” and “respect the merchandise.” We immediately apologized and just continued browsing, now speaking at a whisper, when the woman came over to us again not even five minutes later and told us we needed to leave and “we call the cops here.” My friends and I were confused as to why she was angry with us and told her that we were just looking around, but we do plan on buying something. So again, she walked away and just stared at us from the register while we were looking around. My one friend picked up a beanie baby and was gonna take it up to the register to buy when a man came up to us and said “we want you to leave.” We weren’t trying to be disrespectful but we asked him why and he gave us no reason. Instead of just explaining to us what we did wrong he grabbed the stuffie out of my friend’s hand and told us to leave. When my friend told him that he was going to buy the stuffie the man’s tone completely changed and he handed it back. When we went up to pay the woman at the register, the one that told us off, was aggressive and shoved the bag into my friend’s hand after he was done paying. The service was awful, rude, and honestly so confusing. We were polite, we apologized, and we even bought from the store after being yelled at in front of other customers. I definitely would not recommend shopping here, there are so many places on the island that are much more enjoyable and have great customer service.

I didn’t say this originally, but I believe that the employees rudeness and lack of patience had a lot to do with the fact that my friends and I are queer. We don’t look exactly like the “norm” and I guess that bothered the woman? There was definitely a lot of judgement and crude comments coming from the woman behind the register and it was a really upsetting experience. I definitely would not recommend going here if you’re queer, poc, or someone that doesn’t align with their idea of “normal”. The whole experience was really uncomfortable and it 100% ruined the day for my...

If you're like me. Your entire identity has been reduced to 'owning the libs' and you openly support people who have no plans for our democracy and take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the individuals who make sure guns can easily and legally be purchased in the United States so that 19 children can be killed in a Texas public school. In this cancel culture ridden country I find it hard to find apparel that says 'ive absolutely no regard for any individual other than myself.' they won't print hate speech on t-shirts anymore but the silver sun mall has the next best thing. Shocked no one wants to work there. Must be all the handouts! 8/5 stars best place to shop one island I ...