There’s always that moment in time, a single experience that causes you to look around with a  startled expression and say, whoa!

When did things begin to change  .   .   .  in this case, to get so expensive?

The moment of awareness for some might have something to do with the price of a gallon of gas, or the sticker shock associated with how much you just paid for a super-sized latte at Starbucks.

My epiphany arrived as an acquaintance explained that They’ve been giving away a lot of tickets lately . . .  at Caesars, at the MGM, at the Venetian, at Wynn and probably other places as well.

Tickets to shows is what he was talking about. Tickets that hotels would probably prefer to have sold, except they couldn’t

So I said, “Hmmmm,” and didn’t stop there, wondering  how many hundred dollar a ticket shows are there room for on the Las  Vegas Strip? How many can survive?

What does this say about how  people want to spend their money, or not spend it?

As has been previously noted, turning a profit in the showroom, even a modest one is not necessarily the mark of success. That’s because the point in an increasing number of revenue equations is to fill the room night after night with consumers who, having been satisfied by their showroom experience, will march forth to spread big bucks elsewhere on the property.

Steve Wynn put this thinking into words with his recent explanation of the rationale for pulling the plug on Avenue Q and enlarging the showroom for the super-sized success that he hopes arrives early next year with the opening of Spamalot.

Which led to that light bulb over my head turning itself on.

 The Strip is no longer a hunting ground for bargain shoppers. It is to sensory experiences what Neiman Marcus is to clothes shopping  . .  .

An expensive place to spend your time.

Or at least it seems that way to Vegas visitors and locals who fondly  recall the days when there was not a buffet in anyone’s  casino that cost more than about ten bucks. Neither did you need a hundred-thousand-dollar credit line to warrant  a coffee shop comp.

Has the spending power of all travelers in search of a pleasant Las Vegas experience kept up with the increasing cost of this good time?

Not by a long shot. The higher prices also impress some people for whom access to discretionary spending power is not a serious issue.

But it is those in the lower market niches who are the first to flinch.

MGM Mirage CFO Jim Murren says the softness in MGM’s recent business has occurred at the lower end of the spectrum.
The analysts at Harrah’s have come to a similar conclusion and these two companies own the biggest bloc of business on the Strip.

Vital signs continue looking good  at the high end, that special place in the sun where visitors are more inclined to give prices a what are you going to do kind of shrug as they keep on spending and working up a thirst for another glass of Lafite-Rothschild.

The spokesmen for the way it has to be in Las Vegas could once upon a time argue that, sure, prices are going up but they still compare very nicely with other travel destinations were people are searching for  a good time.

It’s been a while since I heard that kind of response.

Sticker shock has even affluent consumers thinking a bit more carefully  about how they’re going to spend what they bring to Las Vegas?

A friend and visitor with opinions I’ve grown to respect was relating a recent experience as he sat at an upscale  Las Vegas restaurant bar. He ordered a drink to help pass the time while waiting for the friends who would join him for dinner and did a double take when the affable bartender said, that would be $15.

“Those are back East, big city prices,” he said later, giving it a rueful chuckle. “I knew I wasn’t going to be drinking too many at that price.”

His attitude suggested that even those with big time spending power will reach a point where the price of that decent glass of chardonnay causes them to cringe and fall back on those jokes about the way it used to be.

For the rest of us there is always Pizza Hut and an evening on the sofa watching Law &Order re-runs as we tell ourselves that it is no wonder there are empty showroom seats on the Strip.

But the proliferation of entertainment options and the consequences of high prices are not a Las Vegas phenomenon?

Did you see the recent New York Times piece about the difficulty in filling seats as producers take their lofty expectations across America. A bundle of Tony Awards does not guarantee success west of Broadway.

It said in part that “Hairspray has become the prime exhibit in the theater business’s recent struggles to find hits for the heartland.”
The story made no reference to Hairspray’s failure at the Luxor in Las Vegas where lasted only a few months earlier this year.