You know the line, “I’m from New Jersey.”

“What exit?”

Well, if you’re from Paramus, the question is, “What store do you live behind?” Because there are a lot of them -- one estimate puts the number of retailers in this 10.5-square-mile town at 700 to 800.

Name any brand, and it probably has at least one location in Paramus -- some have two or three.

At a time when retail all over the world is struggling to survive, it seems that nothing -- not even local laws that prohibit stores from actually being open seven days a week -- can stop Paramus. The former farming community already sees more retail sales than any other zip code in the country (yup, it even beats Beverly Hills’ luxurious Rodeo Drive) and it’s continuing to add more shopping complexes.

Paramus is home to four major malls and a slew of other retailers that line the bustling highway routes 4 and 17 that bisect the town. And, no site sits stagnant for long. An office building was razed and a shopping center, called Paramus Crossroads, is being built near the intersection of Route 17 and the Garden State Parkway, between PC Richards and a PGA Superstore.

“Paramus is one of the most dynamic and desirable retail markets in the country, and has been for many years,” said Jared Minatelli, director of asset management for Advance Realty, which along with Invesco Real Estate developed Paramus Crossroads.

More than $6 billion in retail sales happen in Paramus each year. So, people really like to shop in Paramus. We get it, but, we have a few questions.

Why is so much money spent shopping here?

New York City residents are willing to travel the short distance into the suburbs to save money -- there’s no sales tax on clothing in Jersey like there is in New York state. But even without them, Bergen County is home to nearly 1 million people who have a median household income of $94,107 -- that’s 20 percent higher than the state’s median income of $80,088 and a third higher than the country’s median income of $61,372.

Plus, there are about 30,000 students who attend various public and private schools in Paramus, including the Frisch School, alma mater of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The biggest of the Paramus malls (which is also the largest mall in New Jersey) is Westfield Garden State Plaza. It spans more than 2 million square feet and was named one of the most lucrative malls in America. It sits on 198 acres at the intersection of routes 4 and 17.

Garden State Plaza alone gets about 20 million visitors per year. Compare that to the number of visitors to the Eiffel Tower (7 million) or the number of annual guests at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (20.5 million).

We’ve all heard gloom and doom stories about retail. That hasn’t hit Paramus?

Well, getting retailers to set up shop here isn’t always an easy sell.

Take the new Paramus Crossroads, for example. Only about 5,200 of its 40,000 square feet are leased as it nears completion.

“Paramus is the most expensive retail market in New Jersey, and many tenants entering the market for the first time need to come to terms with that distinction,” said Minatelli.

Still, he said, “many ultimately do, because the sales generated in the Paramus market far exceed national averages and easily justifies the higher rents they will need to pay to have a presence in the market.”

This 40,000 square foot shopping center is on Route 17 near the Garden State Parkway. (Rendering courtesy The Dietz Partnership, Architect)

OK, how did it happen?

Garden State Plaza and the town’s second largest mall, the roughly 1 million-square-foot Outlets at Bergen Town Center, are the two malls that made Paramus stand out on the map and began its path to becoming a retail mecca. (John F. Kennedy made a campaign speech at the Outlets at Bergen Town Center, then called the Bergen Mall, in 1960).

Before all the shopping malls and other stores, Paramus was a farming town. It was actually known as the Celery Capital of the World because of its rich soil. But that changed after the George Washington Bridge opened in 1931. Then suburban sprawl nearly doubled Bergen County’s population between 1940 and 1960. Routes 4 and 17 were widened to accommodate the masses.

And all that flat farm land lining the highways caught the eyes of developers. It wasn’t long before Paramus realized that shopping malls were more lucrative than crops.

The first two malls were built in 1957. Followed by the Fashion Center in 1967 and Paramus Park in 1974. A smattering of strip malls went up in between.

If I hate shopping, should I steer clear?

What makes Paramus’ retail powerhouse status even more impressive is almost all of its stores are only open six days a week. Retailers are forced by county -- and town -- Blue Laws not to sell pretty much anything but food on Sundays.

“We take the retail traffic off the roads on Sundays to give residents peace of mind,” said Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera, a lifelong resident, who wants people to know there’s much more to the town than shopping.

Paramus’ tax base, he said, is 50 percent residential and 50 percent commercial. But all those businesses only make up about 20 percent of the town’s footprint.

Outside of that, Paramus has four of the “nicest golf courses in the state, if not the country; a very good school system; and some of largest parks in the county including Van Saun Park,” LaBarbiera said.

“We pride ourselves on a great sense of community,” he said. “A lot of Paramus’ families go back many, many generations.”

There are more than 100 holes of golf in the borough, including the Ridgewood Country Club, which has hosted the PGA Northern Trust tournament four times, most recently last year, that drew golf greats such as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Paramus also has a nearly 100-acre cemetery that’s the final resting place of R&B singer Luther Vandross and New York Yankee Elston Howard -- neither of whom actually lived in Paramus.

And Paramus was the adopted home of Tony Lip (Frank Anthony Vallelonga Sr.) an actor and author whose time as a driver and bodyguard for African-American classical pianist Don Shirley, was portrayed in the Oscar-winning film Green Book.

“Just because you may be coming to Paramus for the shopping, don’t judge us by the malls,” LaBarbiera said. “Outside of the major roadways you’re going to find a treasure of great things.”

This article is part of “Unknown New Jersey,” an ongoing series that highlights interesting and little-known stories about our past, present, and future -- all the unusual things that make our great state what is it. Got a story to pitch? Email it to local@njadvancemedia.com.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.