Las Vegas hosts new MAGIC act - Men's Apparel Guild in California show - includes related article on Las Vegas retail growth

Discount Store News, Sept 25, 1989 by Pamela Meek

Las Vegas Hosts New MAGIC Act

Odds Favor Discounters To Cash In on the Action

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Money is changing hands, business is booming and there's excitement in the air.

No, this isn't a scene at a craps table at Caesar's Palace. It's the charged retailing atmosphere surrounding discounters and off-pricers throughout this glitzy desert city which for the first time will serve as host site for the MAGIC (Men's Apparel Guild in California) show next month. After suffering a slumping economy in the early 1980s, Las Vegas is once again a hot market, and discounters are gambling on even bigger growth in the future.

Indeed, the population of Clark County--which encompasses Las Vegas Valley--has doubled in the last decade, with some 703,400 people in the area as of 1988.

Las Vegas hotel/casino growth is also escalating at a rapid rate, with both expansion and new construction projects under way.

Set to open in December is The Mirage, a 3,300-room hotel midway along the Strip. Due next year at the south end of the Strip is the 4,000-room Excaliber Castle hotel.

Tourism is also strong, having jumped 5 percent to 17.2 million visitors in 1988, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. These visitors spent over $9.9 billion, an increase of 16.2 percent over the prior year.

While both tourism and construction are providing job growth, so too are the increasing number of new companies that have set up business in the city. Only one hour's flight from Los Angeles, Las Vegas offers close proximity to the West Coast, but with lower real estate costs.

In 1988 alone, some 22,400 new jobs were created--primarily in the service sector--providing an 8.5 percent increase over 1987, according to the Review-Journal.

Realizing these positive economic factors, retailers have been flocking to the Las Vegas Valley in greater numbers during the last few years. In 1988, retail sales in Clark County increased 13 percent over the prior year to more than $6.4 billion. And within the last two years, the Review-Journal said retail space has doubled, due primarily to the growth of strip centers.

Much of the retail growth is following new housing developments. Building permits for new housing were up 31 percent in 1988, while multifamily construction grew by 188 percent over the prior year, according to the newspaper.

With seven stores in the Greater Las Vegas market, K mart is easily the dominant discounter. One of the chain's stores opened earlier this year, another in 1987, and currently two older stores are undergoing expansion and remodeling. The Troy, Mich.-based discounter said it also has plans to open an additional site next year.

Target Stores has also established a presence in the market, and it has done so within just the last few years. Currently, the Minneapolis-based chain operates three sites. One store is located in the Northwest corner, a second near the Nellis Air Force base and the third is near the center of town, not far from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas campus. ShopKo is in Northern Nevada but has no units in Vegas yet.

Also operating in Clark County are three off-pricers: Marshalls, Ross Stores and T.J. Maxx. The most recent entrant is Framingham, Mass.-based T.J. Maxx, which opened its first store in May and has plans to open a second next month. Wakefield, Mass.-based Marshalls and Newark, Calif.-based Ross each have two stores in the Vegas market.

Specialty women's off-price and one-price clothing stores like Clothestime, Susie's Deals and $5 Clothing Store, also have a presence, but there are no men's off-price chains like Public Image here.

The men's wear approach by the discounters and large off-price family-oriented retailers here is predominately casual. Reflecting the arid, hot temperatures that permeate the Las Vegas Valley for most months, the bulk of the retailers keep their apparel selection climate-oriented. Summer apparel, for instance, is shown here much sooner and for a much longer time span than in most of the rest of the country.

In late August, many of the chains were still selling a strong contingent of T-shirts, shorts and lightweight bottoms, although fall merchandise was also in the stores.

PHOTO : After slumping in the early 1980s, Las Vegas' economy has been sizzling as of late,

PHOTO : propelled largely by a boom in hotel/casino construction.