Flat Stanley goes shopping

According to customer surveys, what is the #1 reason to visit Las Vegas? If you answered "gambling," you'd be wrong. While many do come to gamble in the casinos, even more people come here for the shopping.

Flat Stanley is, of course, flat. This means that he's not a big spender. (Even though dollar bills and credit cards are also flat, he has yet to find a flat wallet that can hold them.) So he enjoys window shopping. Below is a store called Five Little Monkeys that carry a number of independently crafted toys as well as some of the major brands.

We were in Mandalay Place, which was added a few years ago to the Mandalay Bay casino. It has two dozen stores that you won't find anywhere else in town. Because shopping has become so important to visitors, every casino on the Las Vegas Strip has tried to create large and glamorous shopping areas. Las Vegas has quickly become of the world's best shopping destinations, carrying stores that you might not even see in New York City or Los Angeles.

Mandalay Place also has something that is a little hard to find in a casino: a family bookstore. The Reading Room is a cozy place where you can catch up on the latest books for kids or grownups.

Here's Flat Stanley catching up on his reading. The book is Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. I offered him a new Spider-Man pop-up book, but he wanted something more sophisticated.

Next: Flat Stanley gets political