Off-Campus Malls
Ah, New Jersey, land of the strip mall. Luckily, there are several within driving distance (or short bus ride) from campus.
Princeton Shopping Center (301 N. Harrison St., 921-6234). Bus 605, 606. Tenants include Bon Appetit Fine Foods, Main Street (a Euro-American bistro), McCaffrey's (basic supermarket), Blue Ridge Mountain Sports, Taste of Mexico (restaurant) and Ten Thousand Villages -- a nonprofit importer that insists on fair trade and pay to artisans.
MarketFair Mall (Route 1, West Windsor, 452-7777). Bus 605. Barnes & Noble anchors this mall, which also has a United Artists movie theater with 10 screens. Stores include LensCrafters, Anthropologie, Brookstone and Victoria’s Secret.
Mercer Mall (Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road). Bus 605. The anchor is a sprawling ShopRite. Bargain hunters can visit T.J. Maxx; Bed, Bath & Beyond; and DSW, the Designer Shoe Warehouse; and eat at Chevys Tex-Mex (stop by Cold Stone Creamery afterwards for dessert).
Quaker Bridge Mall (Route 1 and Quakerbridge Road, 799-8177). Bus 605. This is the largest indoor mall near campus. Macy's, J.C. Penney and Sears hold court here, along with dozens of mainstream mall staples like Old Navy, Aeropostale and Hot Topic.
Nassau Park Boulevard (Route 1 next to Mercer Mall). Bus 605. Home of the mega-stores: Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Sam's Club, CompUSA, Best Buy, Borders and Wegmans.
Other Entertainment
If you really want to do the New Jersey thing, go bowling. Colonial Lanes (Business Route 1 South, 882-7700) has 64 lanes of pure bowling excitement, and sometimes they even get a band. You've got to see it to believe it.
Kendall Park Roller Rink (732-297-3003) on Route 27 (a couple miles east on Nassau Street) is worth noting for the roller skaters. There's also the Mercer County Skating Center (371-1766) in West Windsor, which is open from mid-November to mid-March for ice-skating.
