Las Vegas Shopping – The Quiet Contender
Fashion Show Mall
A few years back, the big buzz was Las Vegas as a family destination. Insiders understood, however, that all the talk was just that. At most, the family thing was a public relations exercise to make Las Vegas appear more wholesome. It was tacitly understood that the big dogs would never allow theme parks and other family-oriented attractions to actually compete with the casinos for a visitor’s time.
Lost in the backwash of this hollow debate, however, was the exponential burgeoning of theme shopping. Las Vegas shopping is something that reached critical mass almost unnoticed and that keeps visitors out of the casinos. At present, the case can be made that shopping is almost as potent an attraction in Las Vegas as gambling. On the Strip are four huge themed shopping venues (Forum Shops, Grand Canal Shoppes, Crystals, and Miracle Mile Shops) and a comparatively white-bread mall, but one that’s buttressed with every big-name department store in North America. Hotels where emphasis on shopping has been lagging are frantically creating new Strip-side venues.
Forum shops
By mid-2015 new shopping complexes will open at New York–New York, Monte Carlo, Tropicana, and Bally’s. And we’re not talking about small shops in subterranean corridors on the way to the parking garage. All the new complexes will feature premium brands in sparkling modern settings.
Not to be left in the wake, Downtown offers the Las Vegas Premium Outlets complex, which features 150 stores, all flogging upmarket brands.For the first time, there is something powerful enough to suck the players right out of the casinos, and it arrived on the scene as stealthily as a Trojan horse.
Irrespective of venue, from the tony Forum Shops to hotel sundry stores, sale signs are everywhere. Sales, mind you, are relative, and even at half off, the $1,500 sport coat at the Bellagio is going to cost a not-inconsiderable $750.
Want to know more? The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas by Bob Sehlinger gives you all the inside scoop about Las Vegas shopping.
About the Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas: The book gives honest and outspoken advice and rates over 100 hotels and casinos – the most offered by any guidebook – plus proven strategies for getting the best rate. Enjoy in-depth critical reviews of Las Vegas’s 70 best shows and nearly 30 top nightspots. More than 70 restaurants are reviewed, plus the best buffets rated and ranked. Last but certainly not least 50 pages offer gambling tips, including how to play, recognize sucker games, and cut the house advent to the bone.
Photo Credit:
Fashion Show Mall on Strip by Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Forum Shops by Jean-Christophe BENOIST (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
