Drive down Route 17 on a Saturday afternoon and Paramus feels like the busiest shopping town in America. More than 230 stores at Garden State Plaza alone, plus Paramus Park, Bergen Town Center, and mile after mile of big boxes along Routes 4 and 17. The traffic crawls.
Come back the next morning and it’s a different place. The mall lots are mostly empty, and the highways move. Paramus on a Sunday is quiet, and that’s by design.
If you’re new to the area, or just visiting, it catches people out every weekend. Here’s why it happens, what you can still do, and where to go when you really need to buy a pair of shoes on a Sunday.
Why Paramus shuts down
There are two layers of rules, and Paramus sits under both.
The first is Bergen County’s blue law. It bans the Sunday sale of clothing and shoes, building and lumber supply materials, furniture, home, business or office furnishings, and household, business or office appliances. Most of New Jersey got rid of rules like this decades ago. In 1959 the state let each county decide by referendum, and Bergen was one of the counties that kept them. Voters had chances to change their minds. In 1980 they kept the law, 192,394 to 157,648, and a 1993 referendum to repeal it failed too. Bergen is now the last county in the state to keep this retail-sales restriction.
The second layer is Paramus’s own, and it’s much stricter. The borough code bans almost all “worldly employment or business” on Sundays, except for works of necessity and charity. The rules go back to 1957, when Garden State Plaza opened and the borough was worried about weekend traffic on its highways. Under the county law, a store can open but can’t sell the banned goods. Under the Paramus code, most stores can’t open at all.
The borough enforces it, too. In August 2025, Paramus sued American Dream, the giant mall in East Rutherford, for letting its stores sell clothing and other non-essentials on Sundays. American Dream argues that its land belongs to a state agency, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, so county law doesn’t apply. A Bergen County Superior Court judge heard arguments in June 2026 and reserved a decision. However that turns out, Paramus’s own rules still apply inside Paramus.
What is open
The Paramus code spells out its exceptions. On Sundays you can still sell medicine, meals and prepared food, fresh produce and flowers, non-alcoholic drinks, milk, bread and baked goods, newspapers and magazines, tobacco, and gasoline. Recreation and amusement are allowed as long as they don’t disturb anyone else’s Sunday. In practice, that adds up to a fair amount.
Food shopping. The supermarkets are open, and many keep their usual hours. The Sunday hours listed for Paramus stores include:
- ShopRite, Route 4: open Sundays; check the store for current hours
- Stew Leonard’s, Paramus Park: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Whole Foods, Bergen Town Center: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Trader Joe’s, Route 17: 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Lidl, Route 17, and NetCost Market, Route 4: both 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The warehouse club, with a catch. BJ’s on Route 17 opens Sundays, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., but Sunday sales restrictions still apply. Don’t plan on picking up a TV.
Pharmacies. Prescriptions count as a necessity. The CVS at Bergen Town Center lists Sunday hours of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., with the pharmacy counter open shorter hours (9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed for half an hour at lunch). Pharmacy counters inside supermarkets keep shorter Sunday hours too, so call ahead.
Restaurants. Meals are exempt, so restaurants all over town are open. Garden State Plaza advertises itself as “Open Sundays” for eating, drinking and entertainment. The stores stay dark, but some restaurants open with their own exterior entrances.
Movies. For AMC Garden State Plaza 16, check the cinema’s Sunday showtimes before you go.
Parks and the zoo. Van Saun County Park on Forest Avenue is open every day. It has the Bergen County Zoo, a carousel, a train ride, playgrounds and walking paths. The park itself is free; the zoo and rides charge separately. Check the zoo and ride schedules before you go, since events and weather can close them.
Gas. Gas stations can open, and they do.
What is closed, and the gray areas
Almost everything else. The stores at Garden State Plaza, Paramus Park and Bergen Town Center are closed, along with the big boxes on Routes 4 and 17: clothing, electronics, furniture, home goods, sporting goods, books and toys.
A few things trip people up:
- Open doesn’t mean everything is for sale. A store can be open on Sunday and still have whole sections roped off. At BJ’s you can buy groceries, but not a vacuum cleaner.
- Alcohol follows a separate set of rules. Liquor sales follow New Jersey’s alcohol laws and the borough’s own ordinances. Check before you plan a Sunday wine run.
- Next door can be different. The county law covers all of Bergen County, but the stricter rules are Paramus’s own. In a neighboring Bergen town, a store may be open while still covering its clothing or furniture shelves.
- Hours shift around holidays. Check the store’s own website before you drive over.
When you really need to shop on Sunday
For Sunday mall shopping outside Bergen, try:
- Willowbrook Mall, Wayne (Passaic County): Sundays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Palisades Center, West Nyack, New York (Rockland County): Sundays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- The Mall at Short Hills (Essex County): Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
American Dream in East Rutherford is technically in Bergen County, and its stores have been open on Sundays. That’s exactly what the Paramus lawsuit is about, so check what’s open there before you go.
Or do what plenty of locals do: shop on Saturday, and spend Sunday enjoying the town at a different pace.
Information checked October 18, 2026. Store hours can change, especially around holidays, so check before you go.
Sources
- Borough of Paramus Code, Chapter 391, Sunday Activities: ecode360.com
- New Jersey county-option Sunday sales law, N.J.S.A. 40A:64-1 (P.L. 1999, c. 90, sec. 14): njleg.gov
- Masters-Jersey v. Paramus, 32 N.J. 296 (1960), on the 1957 Paramus ordinance: justia.com
- Two Guys From Harrison v. Furman, 32 N.J. 199 (1960), on the 1959 county-option law: justia.com
- Patch, August 2013, referendum history: patch.com
- Township of Wyckoff, municipal clerk FAQ on Sunday shopping: wyckoffnj.gov
- Bergen County, Shopping (Bergen as the only county keeping the law): bergencountynj.gov
- Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Garden State Plaza property profile: urw.com
- Westfield Garden State Plaza, Open Sundays: westfield.com
- Patch, August 28, 2025, Paramus sues American Dream: patch.com
- CoStar, “Judge delays New Jersey blue laws ruling,” June 9, 2026: costar.com
- Bergen County Parks, Van Saun County Park and Bergen County Zoo: park, zoo
- Store and mall hours from each business’s own site, checked Oct. 18, 2026: Stew Leonard’s, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Lidl, NetCost, BJ’s, CVS, Willowbrook, Palisades Center, The Mall at Short Hills
