Question of the Day - 19 October 2021

They don’t call them loss leaders for nothing. I’m surprised they don’t fill them with slot machines. I wonder how this will affect players length of time gambling. 

This is such a bad move and I hope people take some of their business to other casinos.  Right now, the Rampart buffet is open at night and weekends and cost $30.00 and while we have not been there at night, we have been on weekends and the place had a pretty good line even though it is not as good as what lunch used to be.  People obviously want a buffet and will pay for it. Station is making a huge mistake.  That being said, Boulder Station coffee shop has already changed their coffee shop to The Brass Fork and the place where the buffet used to be is advertising it will be a food court.

My husband has the President Card at Station and I had the one under that as we gave them our most play because we loved all the buffets and the president card was also a line pass.  That being said, we have now moved our play to either Rampart of South Point as we want to reward them and have given up any Station Casino.  We also want to start building up points at Rampart and South Point since there is no advantage to having a preferred card at Station.  I will continue.

We also scaled back our play at Boyd because of their stupid buffet policy.  We are both Sapphire and wanted to keep that as anything less does not earn points.  Also, now that they have MSS open, we will continue to go there and use points when we can.  MSS cost much more than it used to, no 2 for 1's, and again, it not as good as it used to be, but at least they have the salad bar and it is a buffet.  Even to get the gift on Thursday, they raised the amount of Tier points needed, so it will become less and less important.  It used to just be fun to get the gift, but not as much now unless it is really great, which it hasn't been this month.  I will continue now about South Point in my next (and probably final) post for now.

We have continued to go to South Point for lunch from the minute they re-opened and were really thrilled when on June 1st, they went back to self serve.  That being said, we were there yesterday for the breakfast buffet and when we left close to 10:00 am, there was a huge line waiting for lunch, so people were willing to wait for an hour.  We have waited in a lunch line before and it moved extremely quickly for such a line.  South Point is very efficient, and has been all along.  We have now moved most of our play only to South Point and Rampart.  

The Brass Fork is the new rendition of the 24/7 coffee shop, as you reported, but it simply replaced the Grand Cafe version of the coffee shop, in place. The are where the Feast Buffet used to sit has been blocked off with construction walls for months now (although the space is occasionally used for special purposes), and the signage on those walls indicates that the real estate previously devoted to the buffet will, in the future, be a food court. This information applies only to Boulder Station - I have no information about the potential new uses of the former buffet spaces in the other Station casinos.

the big deal on buffets?   Pay $30 or more for warm dried out food!   

My wife and I used to really like the gift days at Boyd's, going mostly to the Orleans, where we could also go to the buffet.  With the raising of points we also don't do that now, instead playing at The Tuscany where we can get comps very easily and use them at Marilyn's, their very fine cafe. 

That these asinine greedy policies come back to bite them on the ass--but they know otherwise. Time and time again, the Vegas casinos--in close collusion with one another--have done things that everybody said would surely drive customers away for good. And without exception, customers have adapted to those changes and kept coming. The casinos have been sent the unequivocal message that they can screw their customers over and over and their response will be, "Please, sir, can I have some more?"

So we can all add inexpensive buffets to that long list of "fun things in Vegas that are gone." My response will be to add Vegas to my list of "places where I used to go."

Greedy, exploitative bastards! Why should we travel to a place that shows such withering contempt for us? Life's too short for that!

That they dropped their slogan of "We love locals".  My wife and I no longer frequent GVR due to the lack of a buffet and the crappy players club that gives out 1/6 of the benefits that they did before the changes.  Small wonder that it's now very easy to park close to the entrance in the parking garage...it used to be pretty full.  We visited for the first time in 6 months last weekend to go to a movie, and barely played on the way out.

Oh well, eventually their marketing head will get fired for the drop in visitation and revenue, and perhaps they'll bring back the buffets and player's club structure once they see how those items drive business.  Not for a while, though, as there's still a lot of pent-up demand, and having greatly reduced staff on the floor has contributed directly to their bottom line, making management happy.  Good luck to Station, but I won't be contributing to their bottom line until they stop screwing locals.

With the closing of the buffets at Stations casinos, most of our play has shifted to South Point, where the buffet is as Stations used to be, open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at reasonable quality, variety, and prices. South Point also has some really good video poker machines. The only other casino we'll frequent on a regular basis is Ellis Island, and tho they don't have and never had a buffet, we go out of our way for their steak special,  BBQ ribs, and microbrews, some of the best deals around. 

For once ,I FULLY agree with Kelvin’s point of view.one of the few times.I am also going to add Vegas to my list of places I used to go to

Yes they may give you a buffet. In return they will gut the video poker inventory. Main Street is ex. You failed to mention the 10/7 DB was removed. at Main Street. I would prefer good machines not the buffet. 4Queens has 6 10/7 machines. Plaza has 9/7. Fremont removed 9/7 DB but did not return a buffet. I personally am not interested in a volatile Dueces machine that long term pay 99%. 

The LVA coupon book would get us into Boyd and Stations casinos for buffets, and drive gambling while we were there. Eventually I became extremely loyal to the Fremont — until Boyd decimated the player club a couple of years ago. I have switched to Four Queens and plan to focus all my action there now. I might go over to Main Street Station for their buffet and some action, but it now could not be more clear that Boyd and Stations do NOT want my business. I’m happy to oblige, but I will miss the good old days of casino hopping. 

All the casinos lost millions of dollars in 2020, plus there's the continuing loss of lucrative conventions, PBR, NFR, etc. Looks like they are pressing hard to recover the money lost during that bad time by pushing the limit on every cost-cutting idea the corporate penny-pinchers can think of. Business was so bad last year I doubt they've gotten it all back yet, but look for strong profiteering measures to continue. I don't know if the pendulum will swing back to pro-customer policies, hope so. But once a company implements decisions that bring in big profits it can be hard to go back.

I no longer go to any Station casino. No buffets, no change in the kiosks, higher prices and lower quality food in the restaurants! We now go to Arizona Charlies on Boulder, the M, and South Point.

@rokgpsman

Please keep in mind that the casinos were only closed from March 18th - June 3rd of last year.  Then there was a 25%,35%, 50% and 100% open;  with or without masks depending on the whim of the governor.  It is time that the casinos tell the governor to stay out of their business and get rid of the mask mandate.  Enough people will wear it on their own.

Boyd casinos and a few others I only went to because of the buffets they had. Will go back if they bring back the buffets 

I never cared for buffets - gorging on unhealthy food.  Give Stations your sarcastic thanks for lowering your future medical bills and find short term value in something else.

@vegasdawn

According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board the casinos lost over 6.5 billion dollars in 2020 compared to 2019. That's 6,500 million dollars. Most of the losses was attributed to pandemic related issues such as loss of conventions, much fewer visitors, restaurant and entertainment closures such as Cirque du Soleil, etc. It's a mistake to minimize how much Las Vegas lost last year, it was huge. I don't feel very sorry for the casinos, but when a corporation has losses that large you can expect them to do whatever they can to get it back the next year or two.

(dang editor cut me off before I finished my entry)

Even though the casinos reopened after a few months in 2020 most of the shows, night clubs, day clubs, pools, restaurants, etc stayed closed until a lot later. Some didn't reopen until this year. Since gambling is less than 40% of casino profits those closed entertainment places really had a negative impact on casino resort profits. Many tourists and conventions stayed away because there wasn't anything to do but gamble. And a lot of the tourists that did visit Vegas in 2020 didn't spend much money. The walked around, got drunk, started fights, ate at the cheapest places they could find. It wasn't the usual crowd.  

I have eaten at most of the most popular buffets over the last 10 years, both the high end and the moderate versions.

They are all awful. Cold, inedible food. Long waits. Big crowds jamming up walking areas of the casino.

"Oh, but they are such a good value!" 

Only if you value quantity over quality. For the same price you can almost always find a counter service restaurant with better food. Sure, you won't have to get your pants adjusted DURING the meal. But otherwise, I much prefer them over the horrible slop at the buffets.

Not like there aren’t other locals casinos out there, so the best way to protest their stupidity is to go elsewhere. Of course you might feel better making sure they know exactly why you’re going to their competitors. 

I've never understood the popularity of buffets.  Paying $30 for mediocre food when for about the same price you can get better food at the coffee shop and have it served to you rather than having to lug it yourself made no sense to me.  I could understand it when they had the el cheap buffets for $6, but in recent years the buffets have been charging as much as quality restaurants.  Of course, I always just filled my plate one time, so maybe that's the difference!

I was in town two weeks ago for G2E. While there I spent two nights downtown and two nights on the strip.

I ate at the Main Street station Buffet. It was more expensive than it used to be and I believe the quality was a bit off. Plus it wasn’t very crowded so the food turnover was much lower food got old and cold. And the closed table games did nothing to help bring in buffet customers. 

On the other hand, a friend who lives in Vegas brought me to South Point twice during my visit. Relatively cheap, so both days we had a late lunch at the buffet. The line was long but moved quickly enough so it was only about a 10 minute delay. And because it was busy, food turnover was quicker. Fresh. And yummy.

2 posters simplistically & universally said that buffets cost $30; sadly, they're missing the point. When we talk about how we like buffets, we're talking about pre-pandemic, going back decades. Breakfast buffets at major casinos used to cost as little as $4.99, averaging $9.99 or less for lunch. Dinner buffets would cost between $9.99 and $13.99. The folks who ripped buffets apart by saying that buffets served terrible food that was cold, they're also being simplistic & universal; in my experience at a ton of different buffets, those negative descriptions are mostly false. Most buffets had carving stations with an average of 3 different kinds of meat; you could try all 3 kinds on the same plate or on later trips back to the carving station. You could have both salad (which you make the way you like it) & soup & extra sides & dessert in addition to your entree food; if you order an entree at a cafe or restaurant, you only get what they give you. Buffets were the better deal, by far.