New Jersey Shopping, Great Deals, No or Low Taxes

New Jersey Shopping 'Til You're Dropping

Is New Jersey Shopping great because people from New Jersey love to shop? Or are the people of New Jersey such great shoppers because New Jersey Shopping is so great?

All of New Jersey is a shopper's paradise, and many New Jerseyites take vacations JUST TO SHOP at the outlets, if you can believe it. The Jackson Outlets, near Six Flags Great Adventure, about 15 minutes from Point Pleasant , and the brand new Jersey Shore Outlets, about 5 minutes from Asbury, Belmar, Ocean Grove and Avon-by-the-Sea are great shopping meccas.

The lure of the sea should keep you away from stores but nothing can beat some of the shopping that is close to the Jersey Shore beaches if you are looking for a rainy day activity.

Big bonus: New Jersey has NO tax on clothing, and there are some "Urban Enterprise Zones" that have only 3.5% sales tax on other items. Asbury Park is a UEZ,so you don't even have to go too far from the beach to do your tax free or low tax shopping. The other nearby zones are Long Branch, with its fabulous Pier One Village Shopping Center,

which is 4.5 miles from Sea Bright and Lakewood, which is 9 miles from Point Pleasant. For visitors from out of the country, the weak dollar and the tax free bonus make adding to the wardrobe a real temptation!

If you are going to lose any beach time, make sure to make the most of it when you go shopping. Shop like an expert. Check the sales brochures in Sunday's paper. Don't forget to watch the airplane banners overhead when you are sitting on the beach. Many a pre-season or end of season sale at some of the local beachwear shops can be real finds, and they know where their customers are.

Make sure you take more than one kind of credit card. Especially in the smaller shops, they don't want to pay the fees on too many kinds of credit card vendors, so be ready to accommodate them.

Towards the end of summer is a great time to stock up on summer items, especially at the shops right on the boardwalk or nearby. Most of these businesses don't operate during the off season, so they are very anxious to unload their goods. If you buy the kid's things a size larger, you can pick up some really great surf gear for next summer at a fraction of the original cost.