6 Best Places to Shop in Downtown, Las Vegas

Home to the History Channel's Pawn Stars, Gold & Silver Pawn Shop has a little bit of everything. Shop for rare coins, first-edition books, and jewelry and watches galore, including Super Bowl rings or that special piece of history you saw on the show. With ever-changing stock, you never know what you will see. Because the shop doubles as a TV set, lines to get in can get long, and the store is open 24/7. The neighboring Pawn Plaza—a two-story shopping center made from shipping containers—features Rick's Rollin Smoke BBQ from Gold & Silver Pawn Shop co-owner Rick Harrison, along with other small stores.

The upscale mix at this racetrack-shape Downtown outlet mall includes 175 stores, all of which offer merchandise discounts of some sort. Some of the stores are fairly common, including Sketchers, Charlotte Russe, and Aeropostale. Others, such as Dolce & Gabbana, Brooks Brothers Factory Store, Kate Spade New York, Ted Baker London, Tory Burch, and Salvatore Ferragamo, are more high-fashion. Saks Off Fifth and a giant Nike store anchor the mall, and a Cheesecake Factory restaurant offers a good place to have lunch. This is one of the few outdoor malls in town, and it offers plenty of shade as well as misting towers to help keep you cool in the Vegas heat. Three parking garages afford easy access to the mall but tend to fill up quickly; valet parking is available in the main garage.

The local outpost of a national chain is a thrift store must-stop for the terminally hip. The store's extensive collection of trendy vintage and used clothing at reasonable prices makes for satisfying shopping. You also can find great recycled discards and, since we all could use the help, get lots of suggestions from the staff.

This shop near Fremont Street is much more than a typical bookstore. It sells everything gambling, from cards and casino tables to felts, cases, trays, and, of course, chips. But it also is home to Gamblers Book Club, an independent bookstore specializing in books about blackjack, craps, poker, roulette, and all the other games of chance. With more than 3,000 titles in stock, the place dubs itself the "World's Largest Gambling Bookstore." You'll also find novels about casinos, biographies of crime figures, and other topics that relate to Las Vegas history and gambling. Time your visit right, and you might even score autographed copies of some of your favorite tomes.

Nevada legalized recreational cannabis in 2018, and today about 80% of the state's dispensaries are located in Las Vegas. The largest of these, NuWu Cannabis Marketplace, is 16,000 square feet and sits just outside Downtown. The facility is open 24 hours a day and boasts a drive-through for those who don't want to leave their limos or rideshares. There's even a tasting room that was expected to open by October 2023. Be prepared to fork over your ID when you buy, and remember that it's cash only, at least for now. It's also worth noting that you can't fly with cannabis products, so it's best to use what you buy before you skip town.

A few steps from Fremont Street you'll find every conceivable form of jerky, including bacon, ostrich, alligator, salmon, and even tofu, with hot and spicy choices to boot. Take home the Las Vegas specialty jerky shaped like all four suits in a deck of cards. It's not all jerky; there are candy and other products as well.