Hershey’s Chocolate World Opens at New York-New York, Takes Advantage of Slowest News Day, Ever

By Scott Roeben, on June 04 2014

2 min read 3 comments

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Hershey’s Chocolate World has opened at New York-New York in Las Vegas, and could not have done so at a better time.

Due to an utter lack of competing news, the new candy store received nationwide news coverage on its opening day despite the fact it’s, you know, a candy store.

The amount of news coverage was remarkable, especially since the store is essentially a clone of the successful M&M’s World, just across the street, but without the cute mascots.

Just about every aspect of Hershey’s Chocolate World has a been-there-done-that feeling, including the store’s personalized candy bar wrappers. Chocolate World lets customers add their photos to wrappers, M&M’s World lets customers put custom messages on M&M’s.

Hershey’s Chocolate World Las Vegas covers two floors (M&Ms World has four floors), although the top floor feels like a bit of an afterthought, and is mainly there to capture the foot traffic entering New York-New York by way of the bridge from MGM Grand.

The first floor of Hershey’s Chocolate World features a massive wall of chocolate Kisses (M&M’s World’s second floor features a massive wall of M&M’s, starting to see a pattern here?).

Two aspects of Hershey’s Chocolate World would typically make the store remarkable, a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty made from 800 pounds of milk chocolate and an Empire State Building built with 1,800 chocolate bars. We say “would typically” because, well, it’s Las Vegas. In Las Vegas you have to take it up a notch. It’s the law.

Yes, the light is right behind the torch. Thank you for noticing!

Beyond its Hershey’s temptations, the store offers other brands in the Hershey’s empire, including Jolly Rancher, Reese’s, Bubble Yum and Twizzlers. Twizzlers, of course, are to Red Vines as Hershey’s Chocolate World is to M&M’s World, if you get our drift.

A stand-out at Hershey’s Chocolate World is the variety of baked items. We did not personally try the S’mores cupcakes, but we predict more than 1.2 trillion will be sold. And that’s just to celebrity journalist Robin Leach alone.

While Hershey’s Chocolate World may have more than its fair share of meh, it’s part of an impressive transformation at New York-New York and the adjacent Monte Carlo. Lots of new shops, restaurants and, gasp, open spaces have made this stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard a must-see for your next visit.

In the meantime, we’ve put together a low-cal photo gallery of Hershey’s Chocolate World to satisfy your cravings. For looking at photos of chocolate. Or something.