Greetings from Las Vegas. This is Day 6 of our trip report, covering Saturday,
April 8, 2000.
Strictly business today.
After a pleasant lunch at the new Pick Up Stix Chinese fast-food restaurant
in Horizon Plaza on Eastern, we drove over to Walker Furniture to order furniture
for our home.
It was a four-hour process, but I shudder to think how long it would have taken
if we had not previously identified much of what we wanted. By the end of our
visit, we had purchased a suite of living-room furniture; complete master bedroom
suite; dining-room table and chairs; mattress and box springs.
The real challenge will be to coordinate delivery of the furniture. Some is
available from stock and will be set aside for us. The dining table and chairs
are made to order in Canada and will take many weeks for delivery. The goal
is to have as much of the furniture as possible delivered immediately after
our closing in June, and then finish the delivery process in August when we
finally move in.
A word about our Walker salesman, David Lavoie. Having graduated from the legendary
Procter & Gamble sales training program, I believe I've developed a sense
of the elements of good salesmanship. This salesman is one of the very best
we've ever encountered in any field, and I urge those in the market for furniture
to look him up if you want top-notch service.
Our dealings with David brought us into third-hand proximity to the Binion
murder case. It was big news recently when Sandy Murphy, on trial with her alleged
lover for murdering former casino owner Ted Binion, bought a houseful of furniture
for the condo being paid for by her octogenarian sugar daddy. In fact, the gentleman
paid for the furniture also. She bought the furniture at Walker, and David Lavoie
was her salesman. Murphy's elderly sponsor was with her, and on her first visit,
David said, she introduced him as her father.
Lavoie said she was very friendly and talkative, and for some reason went out
of her way to tell him a few things that he thinks were not known to the media.
He also told me a couple of things she said, upon my promise not to relate the
details to anyone.
David said he made a huge commission on the sale, but he was also greatly inconvenienced
by the hounding he received from the media after she left the store, and he
was also questioned at great length by members of the trial prosecution team
who wanted to know everything Murphy said and did while doing business with
him.
After our marathon session at Walker Furniture, we drove up Sahara to the Good
Guys store, where we looked at the current collection of video products. A salesman
told us they have dozens of people walking in every day now to ask about the
38-inch HDTV set that will be coming out very soon. They've been told by the
manufacturer that stores are likely to be placed on allocation for the product.
Names are being taken for waiting lists, and sales staff at most stores are
being told they will not be allowed to purchase the set for themselves until
all customers on the waiting lists receive theirs. - Another advantage of the
new set is that it will be among the largest non-projection TV screens available
in the general market (or so they say), and I like the idea of not losing the
picture as I move off to the side of the screen, as you do with projection sets.
A story in the Las Vegas Sun a few days ago noted that only 500 true HDTV sets
are in use in southern Nevada, so a surge in the local penetration of this technology
is about to occur.
Driving further up Sahara, we stopped at Sammy's California Woodfire Pizza
for supper. We've been to this place before, and it is one of our favorites.
After splitting a Chinese chicken salad, Rosalyn and I each had grilled trout
with stringbeans and mashed potatoes. Excellent food, and we're pleased to have
learned that Sammy's is getting ready to open an outlet on Paradise near the
Strip. Even better, they are scouting sites in Henderson for a Sammy's in that
area.
We need a couple of area rugs for the wood floors in our living room and dining
area, so we started this process after dinner with a trip to the Lowe's home-improvement
store in Summerlin, right off of Buffalo. There we saw a nice selection of rugs
that can be custom-ordered in any size, but this process is just beginning and
we have a number of specialty stores to visit for carpet choices.
That's it for the day. We returned to our villa just in time to see the wonderful
Discovery Channel documentary on the building of Hoover Dam, learning a few
things that were new to us in the process. It was very fitting to end the day
with something relevant to the Las Vegas area.
End of Day 6.
--Best from David ...in Las Vegas
