According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, retail sales have slowly inched upward in the first months of 2010, posting two percent growth since January. But those numbers are considerably higher at Miracle Mile Shops, the 170-store shopping center located inside Planet Hollywood Las Vegas: Three-quarters of the mall's merchants posted double-digit growth in that same period, and many of those merchants report that it is their No. 1 location chain-wide.

"I think location really is a huge part of it," said Erin Townsend, manager of the Miracle Mile Frederick's of Hollywood, the top-performing location of the 132-store chain. "We're right in the middle of the strip, it's very accessible, you don't have to go through a casino to get here."

But it's more than just location that appears to be driving sales at Miracle Mile. It's a perfect desert storm of product selection, an emphasis on value and a strong drive to improve customer service.

"We're four, going on five months of positive sales activity, with large percentages of tenants with double-digit increases," said Russ Joyner, executive vice president and general manager of Miracle Mile Shops. "You hear that there are no signs of optimism, no signs of progress, but those are the areas where we're really satisfied and impressed, both from a sales and a traffic standpoint."

The Shops saw an increase in foot traffic of 6 percent in 2009, ending the year with 22 million visitors. Joyner said the biggest sellers are women's apparel, shoes and entertainment. Many of those merchants emphasize value, and that appears to be a big factor in the mall's success.

"I am a local here and I love visiting all of the malls on the strip but to be honest, most of them are filled with upscale, unpractical shops with overpriced designer merchandise," said Wendy Mackin, former New Yorker who has called Vegas home for 14 years. "For most people those items are simply out of reach. Miracle Mile has more of the mainstream stores most people love to shop at, along with a beautiful backdrop."

Four lessons to learn from Miracle Mile Shops

1. Don't take your customers for granted. Townsend said she gets a lot of comments from shoppers about the disparity in service they receive in her store and elsewhere. "A lot of stores in Vegas seem to take for granted that they're going to have shoppers," she said. "We really try to individualize it." That means no aloof salespeople who look more at home in a "Saturday Night Live" skit than a retail store.

2. Have ridiculously high standards for your staff. Keeping retail jobs filled is tough, but Frederick's doesn't use that as an excuse for hiring anyone but the best. Townsend said she looks for people with the highest possible sales per hour figures, as well as customer commendations. "We have former store managers that are working sales here," she said. "We try to pick the best, not just fill a slot."

3. Cater your assortment to fit your audience. Townsend and her team pay careful attention to the things her customers are looking for, then works with the corporate office to get the merchandise as close as possible to what people want. "We carry a clothing line that we only carry here and at Hollywood, for instance," she said. "We carry more of the 'innerwear is outerwear' trend — corsets, things that are not only bedroom attire but going-out nightlife attire." That stems from understanding the audience and working intelligently to serve them, not just shipping the same products to all stores.

4. Make shoppers feel good. At the very heart of the focus on customer experience is the understanding that a happy customer will return, and will tell other people. Frederick's gets this, using its very specific niche as a tool for delighting its shoppers. "The one thing we really get from a lot of people is that we help women feel empowered," Townsend said. "You take a woman that is maybe not wearing the right undergarment and isn't really feeling good about herself, and when she walks out of here ready to hit the town — it's amazing the kind of change you see. We have people that take quarterly trips from Canada and elsewhere to shop here."