Awesome old TV ad for a New Jersey mall

I’m going to confess, I never shopped at “The American Way Outlets” in Fairfield when it existed (it’s no longer there), but I got nostalgic watching this commercial anyway. It absolutely screams “80s!”; you can almost smell the mousse from the hair of the shoe salesman.

The heavy New Jersey accents, the dated fashion, even the semi-coherent little girl (sorry, I don’t mean to pick on a kid, but I don’t understand a word she says…plus, she’s got to be in her 40s now) all combine to serve as great representation of a particular place at a particular time.

In an article in the Record of Hackensack from 1985, the developer of the mall, Barbara Azarian, lists some of the stores, including Frugal Frank’s Footwear and Hides in Shape discount leather outlet.