Zombie Apocalypse Store

Zombie Apocalypse Store. Photograph: Alamy

This store's mission is grave but simple: zombies are on the brink of a massive world attack and we must prepare by purchasing 500lbs of freeze-dried food, stun guns, tasers and maybe a sword. OK, the guys who run this wacky store on an unwacky stretch of Spring Mountain Road don't believe in zombies per se, but they do believe in zombies as metaphor. "To some people zombies are the government, to some people they're terrorists or outsiders. We just want people to be prepared," says owner Mike Monko. His new venture is tucked into the corner of his old venture, which sells artificial lawn supplies. When we visited, Monko displayed a video of himself stun-gunning his business partner's adult son.

• 3420 Spring Mountain Road, +1 702 641 8801, zombieapocalypsestore.com. Open 7 days 9am-5pm

Toy Shack

Close up of a 1960s model Hemi Cuda. Photograph: Alamy

Many religions – Hot Wheels, Simpsons' figurines, original porcelain Madame Alexandra dolls – but just one Mecca: the Las Vegas Toy Shack not only has thousands of toys packed into its brand new space in a Fremont Street mini-mall, it also has acres of warehouse space, full of more toys. "We can't keep the stuff on the shelves," says manager Boyd Fiedler, who is at least 40 years past adolescence and estimates his own Hot Wheels collection is worth about $5,000. "During a recession, people like to escape to a simpler time." If you don't see it, the Toy Shack will find it for you. And if they don't, you can throw a tantrum.

• 450 Fremont Street, Suite 117, +1 702 538 8600, lasvegastoyshack.com. Open Mon-Sat 11am-10pm

Pits 'n' Wieners

Pits and Wieners, Las Vegas.

You're leaving Vegas tomorrow and all you managed to get for a picky friend is a CSI: Las Vegas travel mug. Fail. You need something that says Vegas without literally saying Vegas. You need to go to Pits and Wieners in downtown's Emergency Arts, where several mini-galleries and shops occupy the examining rooms of a former medical clinic (the Beat Cafe takes up what was the larger waiting room area). Pits and Wieners sells rosaries, T-shirts, digital block prints, featuring one of two creatures: pits (pit bulls) and wieners (dachshunds). Artist Sophie Duncan opened this place earlier this year as a way to "say thanks to the two dogs that have so positively impacted my life". Awwww!

• 520 Fremont Street, no telephone, pitsnwieners.com. Open Tues-Thurs noon-3pm, Fri 6pm-9pm, all other times by appointment via website contact page

Bonanza

Bonanza store, Las Vegas. Photograph: Paul Brown/Rex Features

Make no mistake – this is perhaps the world's largest gift shop but it is definitely not the world's most high-quality or classy gift shop. That said, if you find yourself excited or amused by the idea of either owning or passing onto a fellow human a Vegas backscratcher, a Vegas Christmas ornament, a Vegas piggybank, cheap Native American jewellery, or a white tiger made out of felt-covered porcelain sitting on a driftwood base, then Bonanza's for you. I imagine this is the type of place where some people browse for hours while their friends or spouses sob quietly in the car.

• 2440 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 385 7359, worldslargestgiftshop.com. Open daily 8am-midnight

White Cross Drugstore

White Cross Drug Store. Photograph: Roadsidepictures/ Some Rights Reserved

Who needs museums when you've got the White Cross Drugstore? In the shadow of the Stratosphere Hotel, this 74-year old drugstore (which likely survives by supplying morning-after pills and Bactrim to tourists) is a wonderful step back in time – to a day when drugstores had lunch counters, an entire display of no-nonsense pantyhose (they even have knee highs) and not one "natural" or "organic" bottle of shampoo. An awesome and cheap place to get gifts for all your ironic friends who think there's nothing in the world more wonderful than a shot glass with their name on it, a wet 'n' wild brand lip gloss or a box of Russell Stover candies.

• 1700 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 382 1733, no website. Open daily, 24 hours

Gambler's General Store

So, Vegas has not merely whetted your appetite for gambling, it has made you ravenous, and you've decided, alas, this particular sin will not stay in Vegas. Just a short drive from the Strip there's everything you need to service an at-home gambling addiction: cards, chips, roulette wheels, slot machines – hey, if it can't separate your friends and neighbours from a significant portion of their paychecks, the Gambler's General Store doesn't sell it. It costs a mere £300 to ship a vintage slot machine to London – you could make that back in a weekend.

• 800 South Main Street, +1 702 382 9903, gamblersgeneralstore.com Open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm

Hahn's Army Surplus

Hahn's Army Surplus.

On its website, right under a very large American flag Hahn's proclaims: "For more than 35 years, Hahn's World of Surplus has been the one-stop shop for all your military and surplus needs." If you now say to yourself: "I don't have any military or surplus needs," well, think again. OK, maybe you don't need a gas mask, or a T-shirt that says, "To Err is Human To Forgive Divine – Neither of which is US Marine Corps Policy"! Maybe you don't even need the pamphlet Hand to Hand Fighting or the book Conquer Terror: How to Survive the Attack. But your bathroom does.

• 2908 East Lake Mead Boulevard, +1 702 649 6819, hahnssurplus.com. Open Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-4pm

Rainbow Feather Dyeing Company

Dyed feather boas, Las Vegas. Photograph: Alamy

Such a humble place, on a lonely street in the arts district, yet what beauty comes from it. Rainbow Feather Dyeing Company started in Burbank in 1964, but the need for the weightless downy medium of coloured feathers grew with Strip-show culture, so in 1993, they moved here. The Cirque de Soleil gets all its feathers here. Hawaiians have bought millions of them to make their traditional leis. Tourists buy mostly boas, says Jim Favazzo, whose wife Jodi is the owner. Canadians, he reports, really love feathers. Favazzo seems unfazed that he is a straight man who has spent his life selling multicoloured feathers. "Everything has its time," Favazzo confides.

• 1036 South Main Street, +1 702 598 0988, rainbowfeatherco.com. Open Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 9am-1pm

Alternate Reality Comics

There's a lot of pressure in Vegas to be super cool. It's unfortunate, but it's nothing that a comic book won't fix. Ralph Mathieu has operated this store for 17 years, 16 years nearby and one at this new space, in the same Eastside neighbourhood . His philosophy remains: superheroes are fine, but comics can tell any kind of story. Two recent genre busters are: Scott Chantler's Two Generals, about the Highland Light Infantry of Canada during the second world war and Alissa Torres's American Widow, about her husband, who died at the World Trade Centre on 9/11.

• 4110 South Maryland Parkway, Suite 8, +1 702 736 3673, alternaterealitycomics.net. Open Sun-Tues 11am-6pm, Wed-Sat 10am-7pm

The Art-O-Mat

The Art-O-Mat. Photograph: Mountain Dandy

You'd really love to own a piece of original art but you don't have any money. Well, do you have five bucks? Sure, you have five bucks. Take the escalator to the 2nd or 3rd floor of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, put $5 into the refurbished cigarette machines, and get yourself some art. Perhaps it will be a leather wristband with a whimsical drawing or a photograph, or a tiny painting on a block of wood. The important thing is that this project to put real art from up and coming artists into the hands of the masses has worked, and you're an art owner now.

• The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, 3708 Las Vegas Boulevard South, +1 702 698 7000, cosmopolitanhotellasvegas.com

• Sarah Miller is a Nevada-based writer and author