"Casinos sell fun." What happened to the gaming industry? The business executives that run the strip casinos have lost sight of what gamblers consider to be fun. This includes Wynn who use to know what to do to attract gamblers. The move toward luxury meals, rooms,resort fees, and shopping while increasing house percentages on all the games might work in better times but not now. The sad thing is the industry's unwillingness to even try to attract the gamblers who want a decent play.
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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Coleman" <vphobby2@...> wrote:
Hi Jason,
OK, let's get technical. Casinos are in the Hospitality Industry with Hotels
and Restaurants. One of the most significant features of Hospitality is
service. Look at the Entertainment industry -- movies, theme parks, sports,
boats, etc. Service is an insignificant part of their business. Where the
parallel does play is that people take discretionary income and decide to
spend it on Entertainment or Hospitality and the two compete for that
income. (Yes, you can find other choices but bear with me in a small
simplification).Hospitality businesses all sell consumable products (in the broad sense of
consumable. The hotel room for tonight is used, you have nothing left. The
food in the restaurant is gone after you eat it, you have nothing left
(doggie bag excepted). The game on the vp, slot or table game is gone after
you play it, you have nothing left. But this doesn't mean that casinos and
restaurants are not retail businesses -- in fact management in both
industries acknowledge the fact. So let's look closer.There are many types of retail businesses. Apparel sells clothes, Shoes sell
shoes, Big Box sell a variety of products as do Department stores. Jewelers
sell jewelry, Coin Dealers and Antique dealers sell used goods. Groceries
sell groceries and Pharmacies sell medicines. Restaurants sell food and
Casinos sell fun. So do Game Arcades. (Yes, today many of these lines are
blurred but it doesn't make a difference).Some retailers sell specific brands. Bang and Olufsen or Apple Stores have
unique products. Ace Hardware and TrueValue sell exactly the same stuff. So
some retailers compete on unique merchandise and others on price or
ambiance. Casinos need to compete on price and ambiance.Is this a perfect analogy? No, but it is necessary. If you are running a
Gaming property and don't look at it in this light you will make many
mistakes that will cut back your business. Even in this economy Las Vegas
properties could increase their market share if they really got the
fundamentals right. Unfortunately, and for many reasons, none of them
(except maybe for South Point) are trying to compete at this level.B
-----Original Message-----
From: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vpF…@…com] On Behalf Of
fordscks
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2010 3:21 PM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vpFREE] Re: Fw: Irony at The Palms--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Coleman" <vphobby2@> wrote:
> Can I assume that if you only buy sales items using your card at your
local supermarket, or if you only buy loss-leaders at Best Buy you should
lose your grocery card or be prevented from buying sale items at Best Buy?
>
> Both you and most (not all) casino managers have no idea how a retail
business is run. Please note the correlation with the number of poorly run
casino companies that are in or near bankruptcy.Bill, a few things:
1) Casinos are in the entertainment business, not retail business per se
like a supermarket. Casinos are in "service" business. So your analogy does
not translate well. Please note entertainment businesses (since this is
discretionary activities for many) do suffer during a deep recession whereas
people still need to buy the basics from a supermarket to live.
Additionally, the supermarket doesn't care if you are paying with WIC or
foodstamps.2) The topic you are talking about is covered in "Angel Customers & Demon
Customer" (link at amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Customers-Demon-Discover-Turbo-Charge/dp/1591840
074/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279318010&sr=8-1) Basically the old
premise of "Customer is always right" is flawed, deeply flawed.3. The latin term is Caveat Venditor, the opposite of caveat emptor. Let
the seller beware works just as well as let the buyer beware. If you want
to sell things at the wrong prices, so be it and watch the parasites come
out of the woodworks.Again, thanks for your help via private email on class 2 versus class 3
machines.