Las Vegas in a recession

Last weekend, as I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to depart, I came up with a list of life experiences I wanted to get under my belt during my four days in Las Vegas.

I wanted to visit the lobby of every single hotel and casino on the strip, rack up a $150 restaurant bill, see what a pair of $500 designer shoes looks like in real life, walk the strip at night pretending to be CSI Katherine Willows on the trail of a hot case — you get the picture.

I have champagne taste and a wine cooler budget. I didn’t want to spend money in Vegas so much as I just wanted to soak up the atmosphere of pure luxury that permeates the lobbies of the Mirage, the MGM Grand and the Venetian. I was willing to take the tackier aspects of the strip in stride just for the chance to be in close proximity to money.

I found myself peeking into the “high roller” lounges in each casino, hoping to catch a glimpse of a confident, jaded James Bond type playing baccarat or someone channeling the glory days of the Rat Pack in the cut of their jacket and gentlemanly swagger.

What I saw were lushly carpeted rooms, set back from the noise and smoke of the main casino floor, scented with fresh orchids, gorgeously lit with a soft amber glow … and completely empty.

As were the high-end shops at Caesar’s Palace, and the $65-a-plate restaurants, and the nightclubs that once upon a time could charge $100 cover.

It seems that even in Vegas, the very seat of conspicuous consumption, luxury and excess have fallen out of fashion in this bust economy.

Each morning at our hotel, I read the Las Vegas Review-Journal and gained a clearer understanding of what has taken the wind out of Sin City’s sails.

Nevada leads the United States in foreclosure filings, while Las Vegas ranked second in a report on foreclosure filings in major U.S. cities.

Unemployment stats in Vegas also paint a grim picture of how the recession has affected a city whose main economic driver is tourism. Even with several new resort projects opening or under construction, such as the M Resort and the luxurious Fontainebleau casino, one in 10 people in the Clark County area is unemployed.

An open letter from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority appeared in the March 9 edition of USA Today, begging businesses to consider hosting conferences and trade shows in Vegas despite President Barack Obama’s admonition that large-scale meetings would appear to be a frivolous use of taxpayers’ money.

It’s not just Las Vegas that is having to revamp its image to appeal to a population that has suddenly found itself with a lot less disposable income to play with. For months the covers of upscale fashion magazines have been pushing the idea of “recession chic.” They haven’t actually gone so far as to suggest that you wear last year’s clothes again this year, but they have begun to grudgingly admit that you don’t have to drop $500 on a dress to look like you did.

Maybe one of the advantages of the recession is that we will come to develop a more realistic sense of the value of things.
Monetary value is assigned to goods and experiences partly based on their rarity, with higher cost usually presuming higher quality — a couture gown, a meal prepared by a celebrity chef, a stay in the penthouse of a four-star hotel. But as the pool of individuals able to afford them continues to shrink, they become less desirable icons of status than laughable vestiges of a time when achieving that kind of financial security was even possible.

Consumers still want to have fun with their money, but now we want it to go further as well. If “luxury” businesses are going to ride out the downturn, they’re going to have to become accessible to a wider range of clientele. From a middle class consumer perspective, the time has never been better to live like a rock star while still living within your means.