Did he or others invest as much as was originally implied? I remember it being spoken of as a long-term project. If it was a little shipping container mall, that's a bit of a meagre attempt. You'd need to loss-lead dramatically to attract people across from The Strip to visit.

Great question, and you hit it squarely: Hsieh and company did not invest the $350 million (!) as originally announced https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/07/17/15645/zappos-ceo...

For just part of $350m, you could comfortably bankroll 20 small businesses to effectively create the dynamic you wanted. Couple that with some drawcards to lure tourists across, free travel, etc. That would've worked.

You got that right, 20 startups or even 200. And they might have made a great return. Instead, they focused on bars and public art (which I think is cool btw) and made a fundamental real estate mistake by loudly announcing where they were going to buy and how much they had to spend.