I don’t know how I never noticed it before, but Las Vegas is expensive! While part of me still associates the Strip with $9.99 prime rib specials and free self-parking, it seems those days are gone. Instead, I’ve found myself amazed at how much my week-long stay here in Vegas while covering CES is costing me.
Case in point: the morning after we arrived, my wife and I thought we were super sneaky heading up to the far less busy Starbucks on the second level of the Luxor. As I smugly approached the counter and ordered my drink, I was shocked when the total for my grande latte came to $6.77! Worse yet, not only did my wife discover she couldn’t reload her card at this location but also came to realize that her $4.50 balance still wouldn’t be enough to cover her grande drip coffee.
Following this experience, we were a bit rattled — would we really have to spend nearly $5 each morning for a regular cup of coffee?! After checking the other two Luxor locations to confirm the outrageous pricing, we were even more discouraged when what seemed to be a normal location outside of the Linq retained the same issues. However, that’s when we decided to open up our Starbucks app and try something.
Something we noticed is that none of the casino Starbucks locations participated in mobile ordering. Instead, opening the feature on the app listed only a few locations in the area. As it turns out, these locations are ones that are corporately run whereas the others are akin to those found in airports or Target stores. What’s more, there was a corporate store inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, located just across the street from where we were.
Walking into the Forum Shops Starbucks, I was still a bit nervous about what I’d discover. I actually assumed we’d just reload my wife’s card and leave. However, I looked up at the menu to see that brewed coffee wasn’t the same $4.50+ of other locations but was listed for a much more reasonable $2.85. Noting my excitement, the barista informed us that, while their location, as well as the other corporately-owned stores on the Strip, did have a 10% markup, they were still far cheaper than what he estimated to be a 30% markup at the casino stores. With our card reloaded and $3 grande tea purchased, we left Caesars feeling like we had just stumbled on the best kept Vegas secret!
So there you have it — if you’re looking for a morning pick-up that doesn’t include sticker shock, navigate your way to the Forum Shops or another Las Vegas Starbucks location using the mobile order feature. Even if you don’t end up using the mobile order option itself, doing this will hopefully lead you in the right direction and allow you to sample prices beforehand. Now if we could only find a way to get around this whole $3 bottled water thing…