My spouse lured me to Boulder Station tonight with an offer to use her points to buy us dinner at the Broiler. Before the pandemic, we enjoyed the 1960s Vegas atmosphere at this locals casino steakhouse. One great feature of the restaurant was its salad bar, which included two kinds of soup, appetizer-like salads such as shrimp and fake crab, and fruit. We would often order just entrees and maybe a side to share, filling in the meal with trips to the salad bar.
Not surprisingly, we found the salad bar closed. I didn't ask whether it's coming back, but my guess is that it won't. I figure they will be able to sell an average of at least one appetizer, salad or dessert per person as a result of the salad bar being gone, for an average of $10 additional per person. Maybe they'll lose some customers, but where are those people going to go? I think the loss in patronage will be minimal and that, overall, they will come out ahead. Over time, the salad bar will fade from memory, and any negative effects of its elimination will shrink to zero.
Like most other Vegas casinos, Boulder also had a buffet restaurant, which seemed to be very popular. It was nicely remodeled a few years ago. My recollection is that the regular dinner price before rhe pandemic was $10 or $11, plus $1 or $2 on Fridays and Saturdays, which were barbeque nights. Lunch was a couple of bucks less than the regular dinner, and breakfast $1 or $2 less than that. Members of the players club got discounts of up to 50 percent when paying with points, depending on card level. Those with higher-tier player cards were able to use a special line, with little or no wait to get in.
As for the food, the main attractions were variety and quanitity, though the quality was more than acceptable, especially for the price.
The Las Vegas Advisor recently reported that an executive of Stations' parent company, Red Rock Resorts had told a stock analyst that the company would not be reopening any "money losing" buffets at its properties. It was unclear whether that meant the buffets at all Station casinos, but my guess is that it did.
At Boulder, there were signs advertising the new food court, which pictures made clear was going in to what had been the buffet. The buffet itself was completely walled off, indicating constuction coming soon or under way.
A food court, which Boulder does not already have, is a logical use for the buffet area because of the large central seating area and multiple food preparation stations around the perimeter. It also offers the freedom of people dining together to eat different types of food, and a relatively short dining time. A food court also offers the casino the option of outsourcing one more aspect of its operation.
It will be interesting to see how customers react to this change. I guess it will depend in part on the execution, but I don't think the concept will be popular. How many people go to the mall to eat at the food court? Since the Chuck Wagon at El Rancho Vegas, the first casino on the Strip, buffets have become an expected part of the casino experience. Only one locals casino -- South Point -- has reopened its buffet, and the lines have been double or more the longest I saw before the pandemic. I would not be surprised if more buffets come back, due to popular demand.
The closing of the buffets, ostensibly "because of covid" (the new all-purpose excuse for cuts in amenities and lousy service) is also the result of two secular trends in the casino business -- giving the customer less value and insisting that every part of casino operations be a "profit center." As for the latter, I don't have an MBA like many casino executives today, but it seems to me that if someone comes to your casino to eat at the buffet and that costs you a few bucks, if he stays for a while and gambles, the house is usually going to come out ahead. Yet for some reason it's more important not to lose that $5. Maybe they think he'll eat at another restaurant where the casino can make a profit, but that is not necessarily going to happen.
I don't know how much Boulder Station was losing on its buffet, but I think it was more than it had to. If it were open now, they could at least try to raise the price since none of the other casinos on the Boulder Strip has an open buffet. Also, in my opinion, many buffet discounts have been wasted. As a high-tier player club member, I always had more points than I could use for buffets or other types of comps. I did not need a 50 percent discount. A couple of dollars off would have made me feel appreciated enough. The important thing to me was not having to wait on line, which the casino can give me at virtually no cost. Eliminating buffets before even trying to squeeze more money out of then seems to be classic throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I hesitate to draw any conclusions based on one visit, but the crowd at Boulder Station tonight seemed to about half of what was typical on a Saturday night before the pandemic. One reason we went was to see if they had any promotions such as drawings going on; as best as we could find out, there weren't (except for a bingo promotion).
I don't know if this affected tonight's patronage, but Stations cut the effective value of its slot points during the pandemic to one-sixth (!) of what they were. Most people aren't going to do the math to figure that out, but eventually they will realize that they're coming up short of the points they need to eat at the casino as often as before, especially if the absence of a buffet forces them into restaurants where they will have to pay twice to four times what they used to spend.
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