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.
