Photo: Neil Beckerman

DIRECTORY:
The big-box experience
Antique city
The Japanese superstore
The outlet minivillage
The high-end megamall

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THE BIG-BOX EXPERIENCE

Roosevelt Field Mall

“You can’t always get what you want…”

For reasons undetermined, Mick Jagger’s famous lament runs on an endless loop over the speaker system at the Roosevelt Field Mall, located 23 miles outside of Manhattan (630 Old Country Rd, Garden City, NY). After a few hours wandering the premises, that classic rock track melds into the overall sensory overload that comes from spending time in a three-floor, 270-store complex devoted to the best and worst of America’s chain stores. Before long, it sounds like a taunt.

At least it wasn’t crowded—Tuesday mornings are pretty dead in Garden City, which meant that my trip to the Apple Store wasn’t the crowd-battling nightmare the Soho location has become. After picking up an iPod charger, I navigated a floor down to a sunglasses kiosk. I looked over a $270 pair of Versace frames as a friendly salesclerk informed me that the prices were exactly the same here as they would be in the city. A cursory glance in the other chain stores (Banana Republic, Foot Locker, Verizon) only proved the point; the mall was not a place for saving money.

Pacific Sunwear

Photo: Imogen Brown

Dejected, I slapped on a free sample of Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Le Male” cologne (available at several dispensers around the mall) and hoped the “essence of modern masculinity” would perk me up. It did—and a ride on the indoor carousel and getting my picture taken with the Easter Bunny did too. At least this wasn’t something I could do in the East Village.…

After a quick lunch at Houston’s of a surprisingly delicious chicken sandwich, and an extended rest on one of the mall’s comfy leather chairs, my dizziness and growing irritation at hearing the same song got the best of me. My conclusion: With the exception of a few teencentric stores that have no Manhattan counterpart (Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear), the mall offers little in the way of convenience, savings or selection.

Sunglasses Hut

Photo: Imogen Brown

My luck would improve two blocks away. There I found a discounter’s paradise: a Wal-Mart and a Costco, perched side by side. At Wal-Mart, an SD memory card for my camera went for $19 (about half of what I’d pay in the city), while 18 bars of Ivory soap came to just $3.86. The fashion department was a gold mine for socks and underwear ($10 restocked me for a week), but even I couldn’t stomach the $10.83 pair of Wrangler Hero Five Star jeans, which had an alarming brightness and texture. They didn’t seem like jeans, but more like “denim-flavored” pants.

Next I hit up Costco. A required $50 membership fee meant that I wasn’t going to be doing any real shopping (or even looking around: You can’t enter without a pass, although slipping in through the exit door solved that problem). Once inside, I gaped at the deals. Maybe I did need five pounds of mozzarella sticks ($10.39) and a Vizio 32" HDTV ($599), which were situated about ten feet from each other.—Kirk Miller

THE TAB

+ Car Rental $104
Rental car at Avis (68 E 11th St between Broadway and University Pl, 212-593-8397) $65, plus $20 for insurance and $10 for GPS. Tolls, add another $4.50 each way. By train, take the LIRR from Penn Station to Mineloa (45 minutes), then take the N15 bus (10 minutes)—$8.25 total one way.

+ Meals $40
A one-drink, no-appetizer lunch for two at Houston’s, by far the nicest establishment in the Roosevelt Field Mall, came to $40.

TOTAL COST $144

TRAVEL TIME 75 minutes

Is it worth the trip?

YES I left Garden City with most of my list crossed off—and saved welcome cash at Wal-Mart (sorry, activists and angry documentary filmmakers). Here’s the breakdown compared to NYC:

A cheap pair of jeans Wrangler Hero Five Star, $10.83 at Wal-Mart; Regular Fit Straight Jeans, $39.50 at Uniqlo

Soap Ivory soap, 18-bar pack, $3.86 at Wal-Mart; Ivory soap, four 4-packs, $11.56 at Duane Reade

HDTV Vizio 32" LCD TV, $599 at Costco; Insignia 32" LCD TV, $599 at Best Buy