Since the first pioneers arrived in the 1800s, the Reno/Sparks area has been a regional trading center, serving the shopping needs of local residents as well as people living in rural northern Nevada and California. While it will never rival glitzy shopping meccas like San Francisco, Dallas, or New York, the Truckee Meadows is viewed by retail marketers as a lucrative and growing market of more than one-half million eager shoppers.
Extraordinary growth over the past several decades has caused a retail explosion, with new shopping centers springing up on many vacant lots. Along South Virginia Street, a concrete/asphalt retail row has replaced the peaceful pastures where cattle once grazed lazily on tall, green grass. North of downtown Sparks, retail development and housing subdivisions blanket the previously unspoiled desert landscape. Many locals lament this rapid urbanization and its inherent loss of the wide-open spaces, but for shoppers it means more stores, bigger stores, and ever-increasing choices of treasures to buy.
While shoppers once flocked to downtown Reno to browse the upscale stores sprinkled among the casinos, they now head to the myriad malls strung along major streets and sprawling between housing developments. As in many other cities and towns, shopping in Reno moved from the downtown to outlying areas when malls came into vogue. The movement began in the late 1960s when Park Lane Mall (largely demolished several years ago) opened its doors at the corner of Plumb Lane and South Virginia Street. Meadowood Mall, the area’s largest shopping mall, pushed development farther south to the corner of South McCarran Boulevard and South Virginia Street. While Reno has experienced robust growth in all directions, the lion’s share of shopping expansion has been to the south, with retail establishments now stretching clear up Nevada Highway 431 (the Mt. Rose Highway).
New shopping malls that have been constructed along South Virginia Street within the past several years include Sierra Town Center, South Towne Crossing, The Commons, and The Summit Sierra (see descriptions later in this chapter). Perhaps one of the biggest indicators of the vitality of area shopping is the addition of three of the country’s best-known sporting goods superstores: Orvis is located at the Summit Sierra, Cabela’s occupies several acres next to Boomtown, and Scheels recently opened the largest all sporting goods store in the world in the Legends at Sparks Marina development in Sparks.
With the preservation of Victorian Square, Sparks has maintained a small-town shopping ambience in its core downtown (see the Attractions chapter for more about Victorian Square). The square has an interesting collection of specialty shops especially appealing to visitors. More shopping is clustered in malls along major streets, such as McCarran, Vista, Sparks, and Oddie Boulevards, and Prater Way. After a lifetime of struggling to develop a substantial retail base, however, Sparks has finally come into its own in recent years, especially with the addition of the Legends at Sparks Marina and the Galleria Sparks developments. See details in the Sparks section of this chapter.
Although you can shop for both the necessities and the niceties in the Reno/Sparks area, shopping in the Lake Tahoe Basin is more tourist-oriented. Plenty of boutiques offer tantalizing one-of-a-kind specialty items, but if you’re looking for essentials at a reasonable price, your choices are apt to be slim. You can’t beat the selection of outdoor clothing and ski equipment, but don’t expect to find a huge selection of three-piece suits or other office wear. In contrast to the megamarts and chain stores so prevalent in the Reno/Sparks area, shops in the Lake Tahoe region are mostly mom-and-pop establishments, highly individualized and unique in their merchandise and character. They’re easy to spot, clustered in a few mini-malls around the lake or tucked next to restaurants and hotels. Most shopping in the South Shore Lake Tahoe area is found at the “Y” (the junction of U.S. Highway 50 and California Highway 89), at the base of Heavenly Ski Resort’s gondola, and around the California–Nevada state line. I also highly recommend a shopping expedition to Truckee, where you’ll find a plethora of intriguing shops and restaurants clustered all along the main street. (See the Day Trips chapter for details on this historic town.) You’ll also find interesting boutiques in the villages at Squaw Valley USA and Northstar-at-Tahoe.
To help you maximize your shopping experience in the Reno/Tahoe area, this chapter has been organized by the regular four geographical regions: Reno, Sparks, North Shore Lake Tahoe, and South Shore Lake Tahoe. Each of these regions starts with an overview of the main malls and a sampling of the shopping centers. (Not all the stores in the main malls are described, because they all have a large variety of shops that will meet most of your shopping needs.) Then individual store descriptions follow in the following categories: antiques, books, casino shopping, consignment, gifts and souvenirs, kidstuff, pawn shops, sporting gear, and women’s clothing.
The store listings that follow aren’t meant to be all-inclusive. I’ve merely tried to whet your appetite and hope you discover other shopping delights on your own. For a more complete listing of stores, you should consult local telephone directories. Most malls are open daily, but since store hours can vary, a main number or Internet address (if available) has been included so you can verify hours of operation before heading out.
So put on your walking shoes, grab your credit card, and let’s shop ’til we drop.
Most people know the Reno/Tahoe area is absolutely tops for outdoor recreation and nonstop casino action—but they may not know that it’s also rich in culture, with an appreciation of the arts that’s deeply ingrained in its history. Far from a cultural wasteland, Reno has been dubbed “the Paris of Northern Nevada” by VIA magazine. And because a national survey of reading habits found Reno to be the most well-read city in the country, it could also be nicknamed “The Biggest Little Literary City in the World.”
In this chapter information about the arts is organized into six categories: support organizations, performing arts (theater, music, dance, and venues), visual arts, literary arts, educational institutions, and galleries. The regular geographical sequence has been used, except Reno and Sparks have been combined into one area because most of the arts offerings aren’t restricted to either one community or the other. (Though it’s been divided geographically, don’t let that limit your options since the regions are close enough for day or afternoon trips. If you’re staying in Reno, you might still enjoy some of the offerings in the Tahoe area and vice versa.) Also featured are the some of the ethnic and cultural organizations that celebrate the rich diversity of the area. (For performing arts associated with nightclubs and casinos, see the Casino Nightlife and Nightlife chapters.)
Although this treatment of the arts is designed to show the richness and diversity of offerings available, it’s not intended to be exhaustive. It’s impossible to list everything, but this representative sample should whet your appetite to find out more about your particular interests in the arts. For an all-inclusive listing, you can contact Sierra Arts at (775) 329-ARTS or www.sierra-arts.org. Ask for a copy of their monthly publication, Encore. You can also find updated information about arts events by reading Artifacts, a quarterly publication available free in newspaper racks in the Lake Tahoe Basin, and the Reno News & Review, a weekly publication distributed free in newspaper racks throughout the Reno/Tahoe area. The Reno Gazette-Journal publishes arts news in Best Bets on Thursday and Calendar on Friday. All of the Reno/Tahoe art galleries aren’t listed, but instead examples that illustrate the richness and variety of artistic works available in the area. You’ll find additional galleries listed in local telephone directories.