The first part of your query is an easy one, thanks to a great Web site called vegastodayandtomorrow.com, which has all kinds of interesting information about Las Vegas, including a map showing the breakdown of the major hotels and/or casinos that serve Pepsi (31) and Coke (28).
Interestingly, the whole Harrah's group is Pepsi, while MGM Mirage is divided between the two rival beverages. From the map, it looks like established historical relationships dictate who serves what, with the MGM Grand being a Coke property and the three original Steve Wynn properties (the Mirage, TI, and Bellagio) also falling into the Coke camp (whether they had this allegiance prior to their purchase by MGM Grand we're not sure). The rest of the properties comprising what is now the MGM Mirage leviathan (Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, and Circus Circus) are all Pepsi. Ditto the Boyd/Coast Group and South Point (which isn't on the map, but we called them to find out).
The "fun" part of your question turned out to be not-so-fun at this end. Talk about going round in circles. It started off quite promisingly with a call to a very helpful lady at the Coca Cola store in Las Vegas (we thought we were calling the bottling plant, but dialed the wrong number), who found a fact sheet about some global Coke stats, which she said she'd see if she was able to fax us (we're still waiting on that, so evidently she wasn't). She also gave us the correct number to the Coca Cola Bottling Plant, where we were referred to a corporate office in Florida, where we were put through to a night watchman at a bottling plant in Tallahassee, who was filling in for someone else and, not surprisingly, had no idea how much Coke Las Vegas goes through in a year, although he was very charming and wished us well in our quest.
So, back to square one: We called the bottling plant in Las Vegas again, which is responsible for distributing all Coke products in the area, and got through to the exact same person as the first time, who said no one there would have any idea how much Coke they supply. We just didn't buy it -- uh, you're the local distributors, right? How could you not know? So we persuaded him to put us through to someone in inventory, and got her voicemail. We left a message, which has yet to be returned.
Undeterred, we tried a different approach and contacted a beverage manager at the MGM Grand -- a Coke property -- who had previously been extremely helpful when we were researching how much beer the Brits went through the night of the infamous Ricky Hatton fight. The email bounced right back, so evidently he's no longer with the property. (He was probably fired for being too helpful.)[*See upadate!]
Okay, so much for Coke. We figured we'd give Pespi a try. Their corporate Web site is not very inviting and the "Fast Facts" section told us nothing we wanted to know. We sent an email to the public-relations department, which we then followed up with a phone call.
"I doubt anyone will answer that question," said the lady who answered the phone. "We don't give out those kinds of statistics, but I could put you through to the Purchasing Dept. in New York, even though I don't think it will do you any good."
"Uh, yes please, put me through."
She did, but it turns out the New York office was working on "holiday time," which means they all pack up and go home at 12:45 EST (lucky them). Without a specific name to look up in the directory, it was impossible to leave a message for anyone. Fine.
We then found a distribution map and discovered that Las Vegas' Pepsi comes in from California, so we called the office in Aliso Viejo. A human answered the phone and, after a couple of transfers, we got through to a gentleman in Inventory Control. He was on voicemail. We left a message. He didn't call back.
In one l
