Rex

Too Much of a Good Thing

December 23, 2009

Following the trend of properties such as the Excalibur and Luxor, both the MGM Grand and The Stratosphere have begun offering all day buffet passes.

The gist of these particular gimmicks is that, not only will you be able to get unlimited food from the eatery, but you can come and go as many times as you wish.

If you want to eat a piece of chicken, go play blackjack, come back and eat a piece of beef, go to a show, come back and eat a taco, etc, etc … you are free to do so.  You may visit the buffet a theoretically unlimited amount of times for one price.  This includes various time-of-day offerings such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It’s a buffet of the buffet for lack of a better analogy.

When I first heard of this concept, I was skeptical.  To some degree, I still am.

Even though the Vegas buffet is my dining venue of choice, I don’t think I would ever purchase one of these passes.

First of all, I have never in my life eaten two buffets on the same day.  It seems a bit gluttonous.  I’m a big guy with a small guy appetite.  At 6′3″ and 195lbs, I look like I should be able to put away anything that crosses my path, but I have trouble finishing a Peppermill omelette, and I would never be able to polish off even a single bullet-riddled rabbit.  With the exception of shrimp and crab legs (of which I can eat several pounds in one sitting), I don’t go to a buffet for the quantity, I go for the variety.

Second, the price is not compelling.

MGM charges $30 for the weekday pass and $40 for the weekend pass.  If you paid for these buffets individually, they would cost anywhere from $14 to $28.  The Stratosphere day passes will range from $25 (Saturday thru Thursday) to $30 (Friday Night Seafood), while the individual buffets are $12 to $21.

To put this into more simple terms, all-day buffets approximate a “buy one get the second for half off” pricing structure.  This assumes that you will eat twice a day.  Obviously the more you eat the more you “save”, but for Christ’s sake, aside from Oprah, who wants to spend the entire day eating?

Third, I have eaten at every major buffet in this town and I can categorically state that exactly zero of them are worth three daily visits.  Even if I have a favorite, I’ll usually wait a full week between visits or usually longer.

Fourth, these passes kill flexibility.  In order to get maximum value, you can never stray very far from the purchased eating hole.  I suppose that this is the point, but I’ve no idea why someone would acquiesce to this.  If you go to the Hard Rock Cafe on a whim, or if you decide to eat anywhere else, you are getting a poor return on your initial investment … which leads to number 5.

Fifth, it probably is a bad investment.  It’s a “use it or lose it” proposition.  Again, with the exception of Oprah, this is a situation where people’s eyes are probably bigger than their stomachs.  Much like gift cards and cellphone minutes, I’ve little doubt that a large number of these passes will go unredeemed.  People will buy one for lunch and end up going elsewhere for subsequent meals.  What looks like a great value at the start of the day looks a little less appealing after you have polished off the first full meal.

This entire scheme appears to be the culinary equivalent of “Blackjack Switch”.

It seems like a great deal, until you crunch the numbers.

Since more and more buffets are moving toward the daily price model, there is obviously a market for it.  It’s a market that I don’t fully comprehend.  I’m sure these schemes make more money for the house (as do all prepaid plans).  They effectively increase the price of the buffet without actually increasing it, and they keep people tied to a single casino.

It will be interesting to see if the target demographic for these meal plans really gamble more on-property because they don’t want to waste their remaining $7 in prepaid buffet credits, or if the buffets will simply realize greater profits as people skip meals.

Anyway, if you love the Stratosphere buffet, and I mean really, really love it, you just got a whole new reason to jump on the next plane to Vegas.

Bon Appétit.

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Author
Rex
Date
12:57 am
Posted in
Food & Drinks, The Strip

9 Comments »

  1. Written by keith on December 23, 2009 at 3:25 am

    is there a way to pass the buffet coupon to someone else? i mean, is there anything that has your name on it, and they need to see a hand stamp or ID or something to let you back in? might not be a bad idea if you & your friends are REALLY cheap and don’t mind eating in shifts. one in, one out.

    now that i think about it, if that is the case, i should let the air traffic controllers down there know – when one gets back from break, they can pass the coupon/pass thing to the next guy.

  2. Written by mike_ch on December 23, 2009 at 1:55 pm

    You clearly have not been on the upper level of Excalibur in the morning. This program is a hit, at the right price. I don’t know if it would fly at P-Ho, but at the bargain joints it’s really moving wallets out of pockets.

    You haven’t quite hit the nail on the head, though: getting a table at these buffets, even as a eat-once customer, is difficult because of all the return diners coming through the day. I don’t know if staffing is short or those always-empty tables at the buffet are really full, but I can see this becoming buffet hell (more than normal) at times like, oh, New Years (aka: right effin’ now.)

    My favourite buffet this year has been the Mandalay Bay buffet, and they started offering this. I almost took them up on it except I arrived for breakfast and saw the sea of humanity.

    Another fun getcha: Luxor’s buffet included free alcoholic beverage for a while, but that didn’t last long. Shows you how much profit in these places now comes from getting people blasted instead of doing things AFTER they’ve been blasted. I guess in these recession times when people would feel foolish gambling, the casino has to focus less on the gaming and more on the desire to enter a Happy Warm Feeling Land where the DOW number doesn’t matter.

    For affordable booze in a buffet, M remains king.

  3. Written by ColinFromLasVegas on December 23, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    Those kinds of deals have been going on for a few months now. And I also don’t think they are that great. Because it restricts you to that one casino. Which is the whole idea they wanna do to keep your business. You ask me, it’s like institutionalizing tourists and trying to vaguely imprison them.

    Buffets are great in this town. But I always pay attention to rules on where I go and eat.

    First thing I do is look around at a buffet to see if they have proper glass food shield covers. If they don’t have any that are sufficient to do even basic protection, I pass. If people that are serving themselves cough and sneeze and drool all over the food, I’m not interested in eating there.

    Second, I look around to see if there are plenty of food attendants, servers, chefs, people who work there around. And I check to see if they are periodically checking the servings that are put out there, especially the seafood stuff like crab’s legs, shrimp and stuff that needs to be kept cold. Because if they aren’t, there’s a good chance I’ll get food poisoning. This is hard to tell sometimes, but you can get a gauge for it if you watch the people maintaining the place. Another thing to look for is if they clean up after people like Rex who slobbers Alaskan King crab leg juice all over the place on the counters.

    Third, if I see really immense people eating there and like shoving food in their purses and wallets for later, I pass. I just don’t want to be a part of that gluttony rodeo. I love eating good food, but I don’t want to watch people eating like pigs in a trough.

    And lastly, there are places I WILL NOT go eat at the buffet. Because I’ve witnessed people getting ill or been informed about people being ill from buffets. ESPN Zone is one. Another one I will NEVER eat at is Monte Carlo. I watched not one, but two people go to the hospital sick to their stomachs from eating at that buffet one summer. They were both brothers. And they both ate different stuff there, not the same stuff. I don’t care if these places cleaned up their act, I still ain’t eating there.

    You follow the above simple rules, you’ll be fine. As Julia Childs would say, “BONE APPETEET!” (in a cheerful high falsetto voice)

  4. Written by goatsrus on December 25, 2009 at 3:06 am

    Actually this might work for us since we only stay in one casino and it would be nice to just go get a snack whenever the mood strikes us. My husband is always hungry when I am not so he could just go grazing whilst im on a slot having cocktails and not bother me whining about being hungry. Saving time not waiting for food delivery and being able to have choices is also a plus with this system as well as not having to tip as I would rather save my money for the tables and slots. I however do agree that the food safety issue is very real with keeping temps right and slobber off the food but if I ever see any green boogers hanging off food I usually don’t eat it.

  5. Written by keith on December 25, 2009 at 4:42 am

    goatsrus – you should at least leave a buck or two per person for a tip, even for a buffet. the waiter/waitress still has to bus the dishes to/from your table and bring you drink refills… that goes for every time you use the pass.

  6. Written by goatsrus on December 25, 2009 at 4:49 pm

    Keith: You are right and we always do for the drink and table service but it’s still not the usual 15-20% of our total check. I should have clarified that.

  7. Written by LizzieGirl on December 27, 2009 at 10:13 pm

    @goatsrus: I would hope that if you see green boogers hanging off food, you would NEVER eat it. And please let the rest of us know where the visable green boogers hangin off food can be found so we can avoid.

  8. Written by Dave The Gambler on December 27, 2009 at 10:25 pm

    hmmm. Eat then throw up. Go and play tables. Come back, eat then throw up. As long as those buffets are regularly replenished with FRESH food then they should be ok. But what if they now leave some of the food on the buffet out ALL day to coincide with the cheaper overall pricing? Dysentery, food poisoning and the like….

    Must admit, I used to really LOVE Las Vegas casino buffets but these days I prefer a-la-carte. It depends what you’re looking for I guess. Buffets are good value (but often tasteless), a-la-carte is more expensive but you can get EXACTLY what you want, cooked to order. Tough choice.

  9. Written by Coorslte on January 7, 2010 at 10:51 pm

    I would be interested in this as a low level comp (says the guy who got a comp once at Subway from Casino Royale). I would only use it once normally but it would be a comp that makes me feel good about the hotel.

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