Home » VT News » The SLS Gift Shop, An Appreciation?
The SLS Gift Shop, An Appreciation?
So where were we? SLS, right.
As mentioned, this was my first visit to SLS since it opened. I won't bore you with the back story, here's the Story Tower review and some other crap.
I stopped by the SLS gift shop to see what they had. I'm a big fan of gathering unnecessary junk emblazoned with a casino name. I suspect y'all are too. I expected to find SLS logo gear, shirts, mugs and other stuff emblazoned with old-tyme photos of apes in formal dress, both of which I did.
What I did not expect to see was a physical manifestation of their "just below luxury" marketing angle presented such raw, coarse form.

To me, just below luxury means they'll skip the fancy chandeliers, ornate crown moulding and finely crafted Italian wall coverings for less expensive, more durable stuff that evokes luxury without the price tag.

Surely there were a few more rungs they could've gotten hung up on before they landed at hamburger wood. I'm thinking corrugated metal, roof shingles, untaped drywall with screws sticking out, tar paper, Maiden posters, road signs. MIs-matched plywood rescued from the Sahara demolition might have been cool.
The good news is that they got off before the last stop - mustard stained, thread bare, tye-dyed bedsheets thumb tacked to studs with vintage Owens Corning R36 poking out the bottom.
I certainly see the wit in using chipboard as wall covering, but the simple fact is - it looks and feels unfinished. It is finished... look at the fancy polished metal baseboards and straight craftsmanship. This turd has been polished, folks. Perhaps this is the point - to dislodge us from of our pre-conceived notions as to what defines luxury, ghetto and the myriad gradations between. Like Marcel Duchamp signing a urinal and laying it on the floor of a museum on the wall of a museum and Chef Jose Andres serving up the nasty bits at Bazaar Meats, the great minds who poured their thought into SLS really did paint it with a massive stripes of Dadaist whimsy and the questioning of conceptual art.
If only SLS was fun.
And finished.
I found this tank top interesting.

It perfectly illuminated SLS' narrowcasting problem perfectly. Are people from L.A. supposed to buy this? The airport code equivalent of a "Barbie" license plate? Or is this designed for people who are epic fans of SLS' L.A. upbringing that they HAVE to bring this tank back to Dubuque. Or is this just for ballers who think want to project the image of pimping Vegas and... uh... El Segundo. Would any of you buy this? What if I told you it cost $89? (It didn't).

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Comments & Discussion:
Suns out Guns out. Right, Broseph?!
The 'GULP, GULP, GULP' enticement to drink the beer is also pretty classy.
nodeuces - definitely dood. can you rub some oil on my glutes?
Arm butter on the glutes. Right after you spot me on the bench. We gotta go hard, Broseph. The chicks dig this
The only thing missing is a bed sheet hanging out front in which "I assure you we're open" is written on it in black shoe polish......
No load bearing posters?
Wow. WOW. Those walls. They are not dicking around with that non-ironic "ironic" irony.
Nothing kills business more than looking like you are under construction. This makes the place look like an afterthought and Gulp Gulp Gulp is wrong on so many levels. Do they refer to the pool as the cement pond?
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