The last ten years have seen a dramatic turnaround in the
profile of shopping in Las Vegas. Before the unveiling of the
mind-boggling Forum at Caesars Palace in 1992, none of the casinos
had its own shopping mall, and the city's stores catered almost
exclusively to locals. Since then, malls and arcades have been
opening everywhere, and the shopping craze has reached the point
where an amazing two-thirds of visitors to Las Vegas in one survey
cited the shops as the main reason to come.
Sales tax in Nevada is set at 7.25 percent.
Not that Las Vegas is a great destination for bargain
hunters ; apart from the odd souvenir store, it's not tacky,
and it's not cheap. Instead, tourists can expect to encounter
jazzed-up outlets of all the usual chains to be found in any US
suburban mall, plus a leavening of high-end international names.
What's really generating all the excitement is that the big casinos
have started to bring Las Vegas's traditional flair for display and
presentation to these shopping malls, turning them into must-see
attractions. As for what makes the malls the most profitable
in the nation, it would be nice to imagine that the city is full of
successful gamblers who can't wait to flaunt their new-found
wealth. However, the truth is more likely that visitors find
themselves losing so much on the tables and slots, with nothing to
show for it, that getting something in return for their money -
however expensive - suddenly seems a miraculous alternative.
Along the Strip in particular, the shopping boom shows no signs
of faltering. The arrival of the exquisite but very small Via
Bellagio at Bellagio in 1998 did little to rock the
Forum's throne, but things hotted up in 1999, when the
Venetian unveiled its gloriously over-the-top Grand Canal
Shoppes . Since then, the Desert Passage at the revamped
Aladdin has appeared, on much the same extravagant scale,
while Mandalay Resort Group has been pressing ahead with the
construction of a huge new mall between Luxor and
Mandalay Bay ; negotiations for Harrod's of London to be its
anchor have fallen through, but something spectacular is certainly
in the offing. Not to be outdone, the Strip's veteran Fashion
Show Mall is in the throes of a massive expansion.
Not every casino has succumbed to the mall-building craze,
however. Both the MGM Grand and the Mirage devote a
tiny proportion of their space to shopping, while others among
their neighbors stick to the traditional formula of offering only
souvenir-type stores, such as Luxor 's enjoyable selection
of Egyptian-themed outlets.
Neither is there all that much variety between one major Strip
mall and the next, in terms of actual stores. Thus Ann Taylor and
bebe have four outlets each within half a mile, at the Forum, the
Grand Canal Shoppes, the Desert Passage, and the Fashion Show Mall,
while several others are represented three times over.
Bellagio may have won a much-publicized tussle to secure the
Armani store that the Venetian wanted, but there was already
one at the Mirage , and an Armani Exchange in the Forum.
As a city of over a million inhabitants, Las Vegas has of
course its fair share of busy shopping districts - most notably
along South Decatur Boulevard and South Maryland
Parkway , a couple of miles west and east of the Strip
respectively - as well as the kind of malls you'd find anywhere in
the United States. Once again, however, few visitors bother to
stray far from the Strip.