Originally Posted by
gengar
The truly sad part is that COVID-19 would just be an excuse. Buffets generally aren't profitable for the casinos in large part due to high labor costs (everyone's union on the Strip), and adding more staff to serve food certainly won't help.
Wicked Spoon and some other buffets offer many dishes that are preplated, which may be more to your preference. Some foods just don't work well that way, though.
Buffets are actually very profitable on the strip, and the labor costs are low relative to the amount of tables (fewer servers). The big resorts can also leverage their enormous purchasing power to acquire ingredients cheaper than most restaurants. And while labor costs might be more expensive than in typical non-union restaurants, you're getting actual professional cooks a lot of the time, not teenagers. You can elevate cheaper ingredients with talented cooks. And even if they break even on the food they can sell drinks with a 90%+ markup that will also fill you up. Plus the trend now is for individual "small plates" that limit your ability to pile on expensive steak and seafood.
https://www.mashed.com/118542/can-ea...ly-make-money/