I’m “live-blogging” my spontaneous road trip to Las Vegas.
Primm, Nevada is a modern-day ghost town and the once-bustling outlets are now an eerie and desolate space.
Opening in 1998 to great fanfare, the Primm Outlets, formerly called the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas, was a bustling tourist hotspot just over the Nevada-California border. At its peak, it boasted over 120 premium outlets stores, a casino, hotel, and rollercoaster.
But tough times fell on Primm and the pandemic appeared to be the nail on the coffin. Over the years when work took me to Las Vegas, I’d stop here on the way back. In fact, I bought my wife a scarf here during one stop.
Today, however, the Primm outlet is open…but empty. I took Augustine for a walk through here while the car was charging and I am really shocked the doors are still unlocked. The bill to cool that place must be high.
There is artwork displayed from around the world, which is interesting enough to look at, but store after store is closed. There are no survivors in the food court.
We counted two stores that remain open: Michael Kors and Bath & Body Works. We spent about 20 minutes walking through the place and did not see another guest…just one custodian and one security guard.
What an eerie experience: I don’t think there will be more retailers coming back.
The casino and hotel appeared to be open, but we saw no one there and no cars parked outside either.
Like the ghost towns of old, Primm is shaping up to be one of its own. And I think we will continue to see these sorts of malls go out of business in our new Amazon world. It’s still sad to see a local economy collapse.
I know it’s hot there, but the space would still be nicer if it were outdoors.
It’s like that for 15 years or more.
It wasn’t that bad – I was there as late as 2019.
Wow !!! I use to love visiting the Primm Outlets! I haven’t gone since 2011 ! Thanks for sharing
“…artwork displayed from around the world” — looks like graffiti to me. Who would actually go out of their way to see that?
I would
Wasn’t there a roller coaster there? Is it still working?
Roller coaster tracks are still there, but it is not running.
Very sad. I remember it as bustling place well into the aughts. I bought some great discounted art at what I think was a Neiman Marcus Last Call around 2004.
Always wanted to ride the coaster and log flume at the Buffalo Bill’s, which had a cafe with great Chinese food. I think it reopened when the hotel did (earlier this year?) but has been a Denny’s for a long time.
These were great places to stop when doing the LA-Vegas shuffle. They could get the traffic again, but they need to be compelling.
Primm was never a real town, there was no incorporated area. The tax base didn’t “suffer,” it just shifted elsewhere in Clark County. I’m curious about the housing they built out there for the employees. I think there were over 100 units. I’d love to go walk that deserted mall.
Maybe it can be a homeless shelter to keep them off the streets..
So, you didn’t interview anybody who could offer an official word on the mall’s fate? Maybe interview a store manager from one of the couple stores still open? A custodian maybe? Great idea, but there wasn’t much journalism here. If we were gonna get just your opinions and descriptions, you could’ve just posted this on your personal social media and kept it pushing.
This is called a web log, or blog for short. For all the news that is fit to print, we turn to the New York Times.
Things will pickup again once the new airport is built. Yeah right