Competing swap meets advertise on a Vegas street corner – Photo by Royal Hopper

The soft switch and a Winter’s Day

by Royal Hopper 
No one looked at the sign that read queen mattress and box set $179.00, on the side of the heavily traveled Sin City road. It sat lonely, dirty and mostly unread in the rare, chilly air of the desert winter. For less money than a night’s stay in most suites on The Sin City Strip you could have a Queen sized mattress and a box to put it on. Sinners know a soft switch when they see one.. They know spin. They know when someone is running an game.

Mom and girls waiting for someone on a Sin City bus stop _ Photo by Royal Hopper

It was a typical week in Vegas the phone guy, the homeless looking man who periodically picks up a random pay phone and talks to a connection or his invisible friends was seen on Sin City Streets again. The dancing guy who practices his rap moves and dance moves while in the crosswalk on the way to work, danced and rapped his heart out as hordes of Jaded Sinners drove past him on their daily commute blissfully unaware a future star or crazy homeless guy was in their midst.

Getting your attention and getting you to walk in “the place” is something all Sinners are familiar with.

We have talked about this before. A soft switch is where you advertise a low, low price for what you know is a low value item and when the customer gets in the store you tell them something like “for only 599.99 you can have this much better mattress and a 5 year guarantee. “No this dancer works another shift but for a little money down you can have me and my friend Naomi Fizz as a bonus,” kind of thing.

I am a working man that is what I am _ photo by Royal Hopper

At one time the soft switch was all Vegas was about. Cheap or even free food, scantily clad women serving drinks that are free when you gamble sans tip .. shows by huge stars and mind boggling spectacles all designed to get gamblers to come in the door and spend more than they can afford.

They come in with the desire to spend $5 for a lunch that would feed a football team grab and a free drink while you shovel a few quarters into the Quatermania and when they get there see they can see an entire showroom of half naked women for just 75.00 and if you keep shoveling quarters in the one armed bandit they have a chance at $300,000 or more dollars. It is an old story. It is a Vegas story.

In Vegas’ corporate era everything has to make money so the soft switch in more difficult. Last week $60,000 custom car fanatics packed into Vegas hotels looking to score big on accessories and end up spending money on the stuff Candy Snow stole from their wallets.

Lady smoking at stop _ Photo by Royal Hopper

This is Vegas baby _ everybody has an angle _ everybody has a story to tell _ everybody is selling something and everybody spins the truth to do it.

Its not a nightmare or a dream It is just life in the City of Sin . . . . .

Take care fellow Sinners

Love you guys

Look man I swear Bruce Willis lives there. Two men talk on a Sin City street last week …Royal Hopper