Forum Shops at Caesars Removes Infuriating Shortcut-Thwarting Barrier

By Scott Roeben, on February 08 2024
2 min read 6 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas WTF

The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace has changed the course of history, as well as the course of millions of its guests, by removing a detour that has irked shoppers for years.

If you’re not obsessive about Las Vegas, move along. This is for the hardcore Vegas watchers, the die-hard denizens, the people who know what a Fickle Dip is.

This is for the legions of inconvenienced individuals who endured an annoyance so confounding, it will forever be on our “Dumbest Things in Las Vegas, Ever” list, should that ever exist.

Fellow youths, our long nightmare is over.

First, a little background.

At Forum Shops, there’s a spot where customers could take a shortcut to the shopping center’s iconic escalators, avoiding a long walk and avoiding a slew of shops. Shop owners weren’t thrilled about the “avoiding” thing, so Forum Shops management decided to block off the shortcut, forcing customers to walk roughly a quarter mile farther than they often needed to.

Perhaps some photos would explain this infuriating debacle than our words, however eloquent they might be.

Forum Shops didn’t just put up a sign saying, “No Access,” they built a full-tilt barricade, with railings bolted into the floor. The bastards.

Here’s another graphic to illustrate how bone-headed this laughable diversion is. Or was.

The stupid is strong in this part of the Forum Shops.

We wrote about this perplexing obstacle a few years ago and had given up hope of it ever going away.

In a shocking turn of events, however, the aforementioned bastards recently reversed course on this misguided policy.

The mall recently removed the barriers.

We know a miracle when we see one, and this is that.

This news was glorious and, oddly, received zero news coverage in local media. Journalism is clearly dead when such an important story goes unreported, other than by us, a humble blog.

If you don’t think this is a big deal, you may not be Vegas enough.

It seems Forum Shops is even filling in the holes where the legs of the barriers (nickname: Freedom Murderers) were anchored, making us hopeful the change is permanent.

And all was right with the world.

This longtime source of frustration was a textbook example of a self-serving, short-sighted policy winning over common sense and customer experience. Props to Forum Shops for finally getting a clue.

We are not a shopping person, but we’re going to visit Forum Shops more often just to take this shortcut now that sanity has prevailed.

People deserve unfettered access to the things they love at Forum Shops, like Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab and RPM Italian and gelato. They do not deserve being scrod by The Man and his or her or their oppressive regime, forcing innocent victims to march past stores they have no interest in.

Las Vegas has enough walking. And oppression.

Let’s shortcut again.

Update (2/8/24): Within seconds of our story going live, a Forum Shops visitor shared a photo of the “No Access” signs back in place. Apparently, the bastards are still bastarding. Contact Simon Property Group to express your displeasure at this nauseating turn of events.