Yesterday, I spent the day at the Jersey Gardens Outlet Mall near the Newark airport in Elizabeth, NJ—an outlet mall that puts the “g” in ghetto (before you leave angry comments, visit the outlet mall. The kiosks sell gold fronts (aka teeth) that would make Flavor Flav proud and there’s a shop in the mall that sells rims).

Despite the quality of 90% of the stores, you can actually find some pretty solid deals on designers that your favorite rap stars have yet to discover, like the Vivienne Westwood khaki canvas jacket with black stripes that I found on the clearance rack at Marshalls (full disclosure: Marshalls is sponsoring my book tour) for $16.00. At the same Marshalls, I found a House of Deron, Beyonce and her mama’s new clothing line, cropped cream brocade jacket for $29.99 (not on sale).  The jacket was constructed nicely, but the wrists of the jacket were lined with what looked like fur from a dead cat.

Dead animals and 20 inch spinners aside, the mall is a great diversion if you have sometime to kill before a flight or need a little apparel therapy before hitting IKEA (historical note: The Elizabeth IKEA was one of the first IKEA in North America, Plymouth Meeting, PA was the first). Plus it’s a bit closer than Woodbury.