9 Things You Didn’t Know About the Las Vegas Retail Scene

Even though the Las Vegas Strip is only 4.2 miles in length, the legendary boulevard has shopping amenities that are famed in the world of retail. The Strip’s small mecca of shopping glory is home to no less than four Tiffany & Co. jewelry shops, four Dior stores and six Louis Vuitton locations, for instance. Never underachieving on the level of pure amazement and spectacle, the Strip’s shopping venues also offer atypical sights that include art installations, 9-foot-tall talking Roman statues (seen at The Forum Shops) as well as floating Venetian gondolas with gondoliers who serenade riders in Italian (seen at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian).

Here are other Las Vegas wonders sure to titilate every Sin City shopper.

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1. Caesars’ Forum Shops are among the highest-grossing malls in the United States

At sales of $1,616 per square foot, the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace are in the top 10, No. 7 to be exact, of the most valuable real estate investment trust-owned malls in the country. With sales floors measuring a total of 677,138 square feet, it’s no wonder 250,000 pairs of shoes, 75,000 handbags, 15,000 pairs of tennis shoes, 22,875 sunglasses and over 125,000 lipsticks are purchased annually at the Roman-themed shopping center.

2. The Strip is home to the second-largest Louis Vuitton store in the United States

Akhob Louis Vuitton Las Vegas
Inside the “Akhob” exhibit.
CREDIT: Courtesy of company

Plus it’s the largest boutique in Las Vegas at 14,000 square feet and four stories. Located in the Crystals luxury shopping enclave at City Center, the store’s abundant footprint means that in addition to monogrammed bags, ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, the Louis Vuitton logo shares space with “Akhob,” an exhibit from light and space artist James Turrell. The permanent art installation, which debuted in 2013 and was created specifically for Louis Vuitton, embodies the “ganzfeld effect.” Circular light fields lead into two chambers filled with slowly changing, rotating light, creating a uniform field of color.

3. Home to almost 2 million square feet of retail space, Las Vegas’ Fashion Show Mall has a consignment shop among its 249 stores

Urban Necessities is unique in that it is Fashion Show’s only resale retail store, featuring vintage and hard-to-find sneakers from labels such as Air Jordan and Adidas. If sneaker geeks and collectors don’t find what they are hunting for on the shelves, they can always try their hand at the store’s Heat Locker claw vending machine, which is stocked with sought-after kicks like Adidas’ Yeezy Boost 350, the Air Jordan 1 “Shattered Backboard” and Nike’s Zoom Kobe VII “Grinch” shoes. Best of all, it’s only $5 to play. The buy-and-sell sneaker store also has Supreme pinball machines and a hype wall where shoppers can leave written messages.

4. Wynn Plaza is home to Feature Sneaker Boutique

Feature Sneaker Las Vegas
Feature Sneaker.
CREDIT: Courtesy of Company

The store offers the biggest variety of sneaker brands in the city, including exclusive pieces from Visvim, Braindead, Rhude and Human Made. Among the brands it carries are Vans Vault’s “Sinner’s Club,” a footwear capsule made exclusively for Feature that takes inspiration from Las Vegas’ reputation for excess and “what happens here, stays here” mantra. Part of the store’s allure is finding its high-end designer brands. Feature Sneaker aficionados have to travel through a “sneaker tunnel” leading to a two-level mezzanine to get their hands on primo pairs of luxury kicks.

5. One of the city’s most famed haberdasheries is located at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

Although Stitched is well-known for its bespoke suits with custom-made silk linings, the men’s boutique also has an amenity more likely to be found at a private country club. A back room features a wall of lockers — wood-framed with chain-link facades — that contain the preferred liquor of whoever’s name is printed on its respective brass plate. Locker owners include Stitched regulars such as MLB star Bryce Harper, a native Las Vegan, who stocks his with Gatorade. Stitched’s celebrity clientele also includes actor Robert Pattinson, DJ Steve Aoki, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, rapper Ludacris and Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, as well as Nascar drivers and UFC fighters.

6. Wynn Plaza landed the city’s first SoulCycle

The newly opened Wynn Plaza is not only home to first-to-Las Vegas retail stores Balmain, Marie France Van Damme and James Perse, but the shopping destination can also boast that it is the only retail venue in the city with a gym intermingled among its luxury retail brands. Well- known for its spin classes, SoulCycle Las Vegas is unique from its sister cycle outposts in that the spinning experience is candlelit and has an infinity neon installation offering a nightclub vibe inspired by the energy of the city.

7. Off-White’s Virgil Abloh created an art installation for shoppers

Wynn Las Vegas "Arrows and Flower Neon Sign"
The “Arrows and Flower Neon Sign.”
CREDIT: Courtesy of company

Wynn Plaza is also home to the “Arrows and Flower Neon Sign,” a multimedia sculpture created by Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh. The 9-foot-tall kinetic neon sign blends the arrow logo of Abloh’s Off-White brand with Murakami’s distinctive rainbow flower and is on display among shops including Off-White and Louis Vuitton men’s as part of the resort’s continued appreciation and commitment to public art. The sculpture was originally included in Murakami and Abloh’s “America Too” exhibition at Gagosian’s Los Angeles space. In addition, a 16-foot tall sculpture called the “Smiling King Bear” is a fresh attraction at Wynn’s newest shopping destination. Created by Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel, the whimsical bear wearing a crown and playing with a happy-face ball is fashioned from fiberglass, aluminum and highly pigmented synthetic enamel in the Spanish contemporary artist’s prismatic style. The installation was originally featured in Downtown Las Vegas as part of the 2017 Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival.

8. At the top of each hour, Miracle Mile shoppers are treated to a rarity in the desert: rain

With an average annual precipitation of only 4 inches in Southern Nevada, the mall’s indoor rainstorm, featuring thunder, lightning, fog and pouring rain, proves to be an oasis for desert shoppers. The Miracle Mile shopping complex also includes 36 stores that sell footwear, 10 featuring athletic shoes, and is home to a Flight 23 at Footaction, serving as the store’s second location nationwide.

9. One of the largest H&M stores in the world makes its home at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace

The Las Vegas location occupies a three-level, 60,000-square-foot space. And that’s saying a lot for the Swedish retailer, which has approximately 4,700 stores across the planet.

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