Las Vegas is a magical place, filled with wonders beyond imagination.
It is also home to a place so annoying, it pretty much dares people to not fly into a rage when they encounter it.
The most annoying spot in Las Vegas, and possibly the world, is at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Here is that spot.
If you know, you know.
It looks innocuous enough, but if you’ve spent the day schlepping around town, get ready for an additional schlep, because Forum Shops has created an infuriating barrier that forces guests to walk around the obstruction for absolutely no reason. At least no good reason.
Here’s what’s up.
On the Casino Level of the Forum Shops, guests turn a corner and can see the mall’s famous spiral staircases. Glorious, and a must-try photo op.
The problem is you can’t get there from here.
That’s because Forum Shops and its tenants don’t want you to walk 10 feet to your destination.
They force you to go the long way. Hundreds of additional feet. Cue the completely justified profanities, especially when you’re hangry.
Grating gating.
The reason for this inconvenience to guests is self-serving and, in the parlance of usability and design, utter boneheadery.
See, if guests were “allowed” to go where they want to go, they’d bypass a dozen stores.
Those tenants are paying a metric ass-ton in rent, so have clearly communicated to their landlord, Simon Property Group, the desire to not let customers exert free will because it means those customers might not see their incredible offerings.
All signs point to stupidity.
It’s unclear if tenants realize customers, irked at being treated like children (or worse, cattle), are much less likely to patronize their stores because of this short-sighted manipulation.
In fact, we’re personally less inclined to visit the Forum Shops at all because of this nonsense.
This decision by Forum Shops and Simon is so deeply stupid and offensive, we’re having trouble thinking of anything in Las Vegas more baffling and vexatious, and that includes bars that insist upon using paper straws.
Trust us, those turtles are more upset about this detour than plastic straws.
When we posted about this enfuriating WTF on Twitter, many people chimed in to say they’ve encountered it and agree. This has been a source of consternation for so many Las Vegas visitors, it’s time to end this appalling practice.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Don’t you have anything better to do?” or “What’s the big deal?” Well, we have answers. 1) No. 2) Get your own blog and good luck with that.
For the smarter people who are fed up with this brazen dumbassery, here’s the contact information for Simon Properties.
Yes, we get that there are more important things going on in Las Vegas, but a lot of that stuff we can’t change. What we can do is poke fun at Forum Shops to end this madness and, in doing so, the world will be a slightly better place.
We’ll also get to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab more quickly, so the outrage will have been totally worth it.
