Another local lockdown business casualty

Things starting to open up again here in Laughlin, NV with restrictions. Limited to half the previous capacity numbers, the local outlet mall opened quietly on Monday. About 1/2 of the stores are open and the movie theater inside plans to open in a couple of weeks.

Hotel check-ins at the casinos resume this afternoon with the casino floors opening at midnight. I'm not sure if the restaurants inside are ready for sit-down dining yet but I'm sure that will happen soon. The elderly are still being told to avoid the casinos. With these new distancing and sanitation protocols in place I don't see how they can turn much of a profit let alone carry this state financially anymore.

We've had zero cases of Covid here in town but I think that's about to change with all the tourists bringing it here. Across the river in Bullhead City, AZ the pace of infections is picking up but they've opened everything anyway.

 

For Laughlin residents the social distancing and avoiding casinos will be easy since most of us live 3-5 miles from there. That will not protect us from infection, though. We must shop in the same grocery stores on the other side of the river where the employees and tourists must go. It also seems very few Bullhead residents are taking it seriously despite rising infection rates and warnings. Very few masks and a lack of respect for others with regards to distancing.

I have cut my shopping, on average, to about once every three weeks to Sam's Club on Tuesdays during the senior citizen only shopping hours. At 8 am there are very few customers in the store and no lines at the front registers or the exit door where they check receipts. We still pick up prescriptions at CVS at the store that's open 24/7. Hardly anyone there at 11 pm or 5 am. Other than that, I've had a few things delivered from medical supply houses and through Amazon. With the temperatures already exceeding 115*F out here the heat and the intense sunlight help fight the virus on package surfaces en route.

 

Casinos are now almost all open. Only the Colorado Belle (closed indefinitely) and the Avi (the Indian casino 10 miles south) have shuttered doors. The restaurants in them are slowly getting back open too. Right now about half are seating customers. No buffets yet.

After reading this morning's paper I took a quick drive down Casino Drive for a look. The parking lots are fuller now than before the closures. Cheap rooms and people anxious to get away from home have filled them up in only one day.

 

Good news! We're going to get a new, full-service market here in Laughlin again! The void created by one business closure has created an opportunity for another.

The announcement was made yesterday that a new lease has been signed to replace the local market, the ONLY market here in town, that went out of business early in the lockdown. That old market couldn't get suppliers to come down here for the one store and the owner didn't have the funds or willingness to keep it going. A Colorado grocer is going to open The Market in the same location. The county is using $140,000 in federal Covid funds to help him update the freezers and refrigerators, buy fixtures and otherwise renovate the building. The lease calls for the new market to start operations August 30 but the date will probably be delayed a month or two because so much needs to be done.

This will be extremely good for our little town of about 7,500. A lot of people simply don't have a good, inexpensive way to get to the Arizona side of the river for groceries. They've been struggling. Personally, I have no problem getting to the other side of the river for groceries but I definitely will be doing my part to support this store. I won't buy everything there but I am willing to pay a little more and buy quite a bit in exchange for helping a smaller local store that will benefit the community and my neighbors greatly.

 

More good news. We have gained a decent new pizza place up here by the residential area of town. The local owner of the South Pointe gas station added a Picadilly Pizza to the station. We are also gaining a drive-thru coffee shop similar to a Human Bean. Coffee and pastries, drive-thru only. The building is already located in front of the market. They had to push back the market opening a month; there were problems getting the materials and supplies they needed to finish the interior of that building.

Across the river (on the Arizona side) people are really pushing to go back to the way things were. Among other things, Sam's Club just discontinued the early shopping hours they had twice a week for elderly and at-risk shoppers. While there are signs requiring masks at most stores, very few are doing anything to enforce it. The employees are saying management doesn't want them to even say anything to those not wearing masks out of fear for employee safety. It's amazing that it is so much of an inconvenience to wear a disposable mask for 10-30 minutes that some people have to attack anyone suggesting they put one on. Our society is in deep doo-doo.

 

Some valid points but not all. It was not created for Arizonans. It was created as a cheaper alternative to Las Vegas for people from all over. Every weekend the place is packed with California license plates. All winter there are tons of "snow birds" coming out to avoid winter weather back home and enjoy a much cheaper and simpler version of Vegas.

Laughlin's demise has been predicted annually since Don Laughlin came up with the concept. It needs to adjust a few things to remain competitive but it has a lot to offer both an older clientele drawn to the casinos and winter weather as well as younger people drawn to the Colorado River and Lake Mohave. Will the casinos have to downsize? Most likely. That's a product of supply and demand. Will it collapse and wither away completely? Not likely.