Shopping in Las Vegas

Let me start out by saying that I think my two favourite stores in Vegas were Walgreens and CVS. Crazy, I know, as neither sells clothing (souvenir tees don’t count) but they are both the ultimate places to get junk food that’s not available in Canada. Two items I had on my “to buy” list were chocolate Chex and cheese Combos (not the pretzel ones). Imagine my surprise when I found 5-6 different flavours of both not to mention three flavours of Pringles I had never seen before – Dijon honey mustard, all dressed nachos and buffalo wings! I was even more thrilled when I was able to get Diet Coke with lime, Butterfinger and Max 5. Still regretting not buying a second bag of Combos. Did I mention the Combos were not the tiny snack pack and they only have king size chocolate bars in the U.S.? And forget about finding small bags of chips, it’s nearly impossible.

Staying on the topic of food, I made sure to visit Vosges in the Forum Shops at Ceasars Palace. Gourmet chocolate bars at their finest. Of course I picked up my favourite Red Fire bar but also bought Goji Berry, Gianduja and Mo’s Bacon (yes, chocolate with bacon flavour).

My new favourite (clothing) store has to be Hot Topic. There’s one in the Fashion Show Mall and another one in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. Thanks to my Vegas partner in crime I was introduced to this awesome store that apparently has opened a location in Toronto but they haven’t updated their website yet to say where it is and the sales associate couldn’t remember which mall it was in (I’m working on finding this out). Hot Topic carries tees, lingerie, novelty items and jewellery. Most of these products are tied into TV shows or movies. They had a huge collection of Alice In Wonderland merchandise for the upcoming movie and I went crazy for all of it but limited myself to three t-shirts. Most of the tees were priced at $24 or less and I knew they’d be at least $10 more + 13% sales tax back home so I couldn’t resist. The Red Queen shirt has card suits printed on the back, the Drink Me shirt has a drawstring at the bottom and looks great with a short black skirt. They were having a sale on most of the lingerie at the time as well as buy one get one half price on jewellery. The stand-out item for me was the four pack of Tru Blood that came in glass bottles (quite heavy) and was priced at $30.

I made sure a visit to the Las Vegas Outlet Center happened so I could shop at Lane Bryant. Not as many great items this time around but did get some good deals on the things I did end up buying. I bought a great black and white print dress for $38 (reg $54), two sparkly tees at $19.50 each (reg $26.50 each), a pair of footless tights were $4.75 (reg $9.50) and a basic beige bra for $22.99 (reg $34). You cannot get “larger” sized bras in Canada for less than $40 unless you happen upon a really great sale. At the same mall I bought two pairs of New Balance running shoes for $81.06 (that includes tax) as they were having a buy one pair get the second pair half price sale. My friend bought two pairs of Nikes for $114. The store is called Back Room Shoes and they carry all brand name runners including Puma and Asics. The best sale I saw was the one going on at the Ann Taylor Factory Outlet store. They were offering 40% off everything in the store including already reduced items and new merchandise.

Frederick’s of Hollywood is the other place I have to visit while in Vegas and this time I stopped into the location at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. This location carries a small selection of clothing as well as the standard lingerie offerings. Once again, I was able to get really nice bras in my size for almost half the price of buying them back home. The two ‘corset’ bras were $24.50 each and the reversible bra was a mere $14.99. I also purchase a leopard print reusable tote for $2. While at the Miracle Mile Shops my friend bought a pair of jeans in the Gap for $54 dollars which is a good deal as they are around $90 in Canada.

My second favourite clothing store was Bettie Page. The only reason I’m ranking it second is because all the dresses I tried on didn’t fit. If you love the pin-up look you’ll love this store! The sexiest dresses, beautiful corsets, amazing framed prints and cutest tees can be found here. They have two locations in Vegas – Fashion Show Mall and Miracle Mile Shops. The FSM location had a sale room of dresses and the biggest dressing rooms I have ever seen.

My friend wanted to stop into Tiffany’s at the Bellagio to pick something up for herself. It was my first time in Tiffany’s and I must say these people know what customer service is all about!

A trip to Grand Avenue Stores for souvenirs rounded out the shopping experience. This is the place to get CSI tees and Vegas souvenirs. There’s a small booth at the back of the store that sells tattoo print tees where I got the purple, waffle shirt with sparkly wings on the back, on sale for $19.99.