[EA]

I worked with the guy who sold yachts and I know a Lambo salesman. They both say volume doesn't matter. They didn't care if they only sold one thing a month. The payoff was so much it made up for the lack of volume.

If you sell tshirts for 1.00 over cost, you need to sell a lot of shirts to cover rent and overhead.
If you sell a suit for 1,000 over cost, you don't need to sell but a few.
When a wealthy guy finds a suit he likes do you think he is just going to buy one? Nope.

[mojavedxer]

Originally Posted by EA

I worked with the guy who sold yachts and I know a Lambo salesman. They both say volume doesn't matter. They didn't care if they only sold one thing a month. The payoff was so much it made up for the lack of volume.

If you sell tshirts for 1.00 over cost, you need to sell a lot of shirts to cover rent and overhead.
If you sell a suit for 1,000 over cost, you don't need to sell but a few.
When a wealthy guy finds a suit he likes do you think he is just going to buy one? Nope.

Just remember that rent at these resorts is pretty expensive.

[Merrily Gather]

One of the only episodes I ever watched of "The Simple Life" was were Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie went on this $118,000 shopping spree like it was nothing.

I was gobsmacked. I mean I knew it was possible but I've never been around anyone who was spending frivolously like that all at once, or actually watched a spending spree with that much money involved in action. It's just a whole other level.

However, since moving to Las Vegas I now know and am around some people like that. I've seen them spend $13,000 on a Gucci bag and that was on an incredible discount. I've seen a whole group of 20 of them have a private day at Louis Vuitton while being served champagne mimosas. I can't imagine what they collectively spent that day!

Now because of my exposure to the spending power here it seems buying $500 Manolo Blahnik's or $800 Jimmy Choo's doesn't seem unreasonable to me anymore. I haven't actually done it yet but now it's not as difficult for me to imagine. I used to be scared to go into these stores because I couldn't afford anything and I'd walk in quickly and take a look around and then rush out. Now that I've somewhat acclimated to my environment and my social circles I don't feel as intimidated.

And until I moved here I was never offered a bottled water while shopping by the retailers at the outlet malls. That took me by surprise and occurred at more than one place here at more than one time such as unlikely places like while purchasing furniture. Even the Ross, TJMaxx, Marshalls, and stores at that similar level carry designer items for less unlike their other retail locations in other cities I've been to. I've bought $235 BCBG strappy sandals for $25 at Ross and the list goes on really on the things I've found here compared to elsewhere. Shopping in Las Vegas is an entirely other worldly experience for me. It's really amazing and fabulous! It changed my whole perception about shopping really. I used to be a get in and get what I need and get out type of person. Now I actually enjoy shopping.

The only other place that was comparable to the shopping in Las Vegas was on a trip during Christmas time to Orlando a few years back. The shopping was amazing there too and in Fort Lauderdale, but I wouldn't say that it was as high end as Las Vegas. Just a lot of good variety of brands there at great prices.

And I still haven't made it all the way through Fashion Show Mall. That place is huge! I've walked and walked and shopped and shopped in many places there and they have a lot of good stores there that aren't elsewhere here. It really exposes you to different designs and varieties. It's like visiting a Smithsonian Museum. You can spend and entire year in one of them and never see everything in it.

Sometimes in these novelty shops at the hotel casinos you can find great sales too. We went shopping in the Cosmopolitan and there was a store on one of the upper floors that was having a sale on a huge stock of TOMS. It was a great discount! We tried on many of their shoes just to see what fit us and considered purchasing them, but then I found some TOMS at Marshall's on an even lower discount and I liked them better so I went with that.

I'm still waiting to see a sale at one of the Las Vegas memorabilia stores like in the Shops at Crystals so I can get a "I *puffy heart* LV" shirt for all my family one Christmas.

[EA]

There are an absurd amount of people who will spend ridiculous amounts of money on crap.
Hyde's wine list has $250,000 wine packages. More than one. There's that 20 some odd thousand dollar burger at one of the restaurants. People spend 3000+ a day to rent an exotic car.
Vegas has world wide customers too. High rollers from China and Russia. Multi billionaires. People that rent out entire floors of the Encore.
The pool cabanas are going for several thousand dollars a day. Clearly there's plenty of people that will blow outlandish amounts of money here like it's nothing.

[Merrily Gather]

Yep, oh gawd that reminds me. I still haven't been out to a night club here because I can't figure out the scene. When I read about bottle service and to get in you had to pay $25,000 for bottle service at Omnia I thought how do they pack these places? Only people like Justin Beiber could afford that. Even some of the lower bottle prices were like $10,000.

I even looked at the prices at the Voodoo Lounge in the Rio which looks pretty cool in the day time. When you go for the zipline there you have to walk through the club so you get to see it empty and the amazing view towering over the Strip. It was like $500 bottle service to get in at night and to sit at one of the tables by the windows.

I wonder in Las Vegas if there is like a regular cover charge for these clubs? What happens after that when you want to sit down? Is there a place for regular people to sit too or is that only for bottle service paying customers? It all sounds so elite and exclusive that that and the prices keep me away.

Even trying to get into a place where you can have a beer by the fire side such as the Griffin downtown was difficult, because we didn't know there was a dress code and got turned away on Christmas day in the freezing cold when we went down there to go to that place specifically.

[EA]

I'm glad I have no interest in any of that stuff. It's an expensive hobby. 25,000 would buy me a cnc lathe and mill and I could start my own business. These guys spend that on getting drunk with strangers in crowded rooms with crap music that's way too loud.

[Merrily Gather]

I've only been able to attempt some of the local "dive bars" and that was only because someone started a dive bar thread on here. I've tried Dino's and the Peppermill. I didn't drink at either one of them but I did watch my friends drink cheap drinks and do karaoke at one place and I enjoyed nachos by the fireside at the other.

That's more my pace. Night clubs aren't my scene much any more either but I would like to experience the Las Vegas night club scene at least once if I can ever manage to figure it out and go with a group of people. I've been looking at these groupon pub crawls and night club offers and wondering if any of it is worth it.

[Willy702]

Shopping is heavily influenced by foreigners. Remember everything is usually cheap compared to shopping elsewhere, things like electronics are 30-40% less and high end brand fashion and jewelry can be even bigger bargains. However the strong dollar of late is hurting the sales and that might be making the high end stores appear even less crowded this year.

[airics]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

If they are losing money they will start closing. If not more will come. I've been here for 52 years and the numbers haven't gotten any less so far.

BTW: The Fashion Show Mall makes the most money per sq. footage of any mall in the country.

In rent..not sales


Fashion show is dead... Stores closing a lot yet there's always another moving in.. It depends on the location within the mall also..

So far, the expansion is a bust.. Those outside "kiosks" start at $11,000 a month in rent plus cam and percentage.

[BBMW]

That begets the follow on question. If these stores only serve as advertising, how are the brands monetizing
the brand exposure they're getting. I don't think these high end brands are selling the bulk of their products over the internet. These are high service retail businesses, so most of their sales are going to be done face to face in their stores. And the stores in the high end metro areas probably do their biggest business (I see a lot of this in Manhattan also.)

Originally Posted by vtvette

I always assumed, if anything, these high end stores are looked at as a marketing expense by the brands that lease space as malls like Forum Shops as Caesars, etc. There is a TON of foot traffic that brings brand awareness to a multitude of people that may otherwise never go into one of these high end stores.