[SheLion]

Anti Smokers scream it's for the GOOD OF THE EMPLOYEES. Well, when a business closes, what good is it then!

[SheLion]

Feel free to print out and take this to every restaurant/tavern/bar owner you can. At least give them heads up about what lies ahead for them!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Bttt...

[Phantom Lord]

I know that there is no way to do a complete list on this matter. But I can add 1 to the list from NY. O's in Endicott NY.

[Just another Joe]

Bookmarked and will print.

[CSM]

"We had hoped...nonsmokers who haven't been frequenting taverns due to the smoke-filled air would make up for at least some of the financial loss. Unfortunately, at least in our place, this has most definitely not happened. Our sales are at an all time low"

I wonder where the nanny lovers and anti's are going? Oh, that's right, since they are such weaklings in need of the government protecting them, they still cower in the dark at home!

[Phantom Lord]

And several others that are on the verge of closing. This winter, where smokers will be forced outside to smoke will be the determining factor in how long many places stay open.

A bar I have done lots of drinking at, and my family still up there drinks at a lot is on the edge. And we are all great friends with the owners and vacation together so it is a horrible thing to see.

Being that they can't smoke inside, they go outside to smoke and often bring their drinks with them. The owner, Nino is rightfully fearful of getting busted for having patrons drinking outside. But when your a small neighborhood part with the same 5 guys being a vast majority of your business you either demand they not go outside with their drinks or look the other way and risk getting cited for that violation.

[MTR]

I vacation with my family in Lake George, NY each year and spend about $2000 to $3000 while there. I won't be going to Lake George next year or any year there after. I will take my nasty habit and my money and vacation in PA or NJ.

[abner]

I have a sign up in our office: This IS a Smoking Area.

[SheLion]

More business's that closed and/or suffering from the smoking bans. And how they had to lay off wait staff in order for some to survive:

• NUTSHELL TAVERN, Rte 1, Biddeford, Maine closes its doors due to smoking bans.
•  

• Press Herald News, January 6, 2000 * MINGLES COFFEE SHOP, Kitchener, closes after non-smoking bylaw passed--45% drop in business Kitchener-Waterloo Record, July 31, 2000
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• * TWELVE RESTAURANTS CLOSE in Brookline, MA , after smoking ban decimates business Lowell Sun, March 28, 2001
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• * In British Columbia, 200 WORKERS in 46 establishments have lost their jobs because of the smoking ban National Post, March 3, 2000
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• * Hotelier Don Ritaller, Victoria, fired his entire staff of 12
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• * J. P. MALONE'S PUB in Richmond, laid off eight of its 20 employees
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• * CLYDE'S RESTAURANT GROUP, one of the most popular and successful restaurants chains in the Washington DC area since 1963, suffered a staggering loss of sales after smoking was banned
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• * A survey of 300 alcoholic beverage serving operations in California, selected at random from a list of 7,216 shows that 60% experienced a decrease in business averaging more than 30%; 7% showed increased business averaging 8%. Guest Choice Network + 50.4% of the respondents indicated an increase in customer complaints/fights; + 65.0% indicated a loss of regular customers; + 59.0% indicated a loss of tips/gratuities for the bar and/or serving staff.
•  
• * THE DULUTH GRILL has closed after 16 years due to the smoking ban Duluth News
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•  * 130 TOBACCONISTS in California have been forced to close since the 1998 smoking bans and punitive tax increases SF Gate, July 1, 2001
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• * Thousands of employees have had their hours cut, and hundreds have lost their jobs because of the loss of the smoking customers who form a majority of their customer base.
•  
• " Dread, pink slips greet smoking ban ," Globe and Mail, December 29, 2000
•  
• * A recent study from British Columbia pointed out major economic and job losses after a provincial smoking ban took effect in January: After 80 days of the bylaw, 730 EMPLOYEES were let go , 9 BUSINESSES CLOSED and more than $16 MILLION was lost . The Ottawa Citizen Online, August 27, 2001
•  
• * Letter from a waitress in BC: " My livelihood is being jeopardized for my own protection, and I never asked to be saved ."
•  
• * A hotel-industry study released this week shows that San Francisco's hotel-occupancy rates have shrunk to 1994 levels. City hotels are operating at 74% capacity. Rooms priced at more than $160 are about 69% full. While those numbers aren't disastrous, they are a far cry from the stuffed hostelries we've been used to the last few years. San Francisco Examiner, April 19, 2001
•  
• * TWO MORE RESTAURANTS have closed in Weymouth, MA : J.C. Grear's in South Weymouth and the Aloha in Hingham. A fourth restaurant said business is way off. Weymouth News
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• * Corvallis, OR: Employment at the Peacock has dropped from 50 to 14. Owner John Carter says the business has lost 38 percent of its lottery income and more than half of its basic bar revenue since the law took effect State records support Carter's lament about lost business. The Register-Guard, September 24, 2000
•  
• * Clergymen complain that 40 BINGO HALLS have closed because of the smoking ban. These halls supported local charities. Sun-News, February 7, 2001
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• * BUD'S PLACE in Cambridge and said his sales have fallen 23 per cent since the smoking ban was implemented. His staff has shrunk to 12 from 17 and a full-time employee he's had on staff for 10 years has been cut back to three shifts a week " Restaurateurs rebel against smoking bans " The New-Standard, December 10, 2000
•  
• * Wareham rescinds smoking ban when restaurant owners prove business decreased 25-40%. "We knew it would hurt," Board of Health Chairman Ralph R. Thompson said of the board's decision to implement the ban, adding that he and his fellow board members weren't aware of just how devastating the ban's impact would prove to be on area businesses. Representatives from Wareham's Elks club said the ban had cut the attendance at their weekly bingo nights in half, crippling their ability to raise funds for scholarships and other civic endeavors . Standard-Times, 12/20/2000
•  
• Last Spring (just in time for tourist season), the same three anti-smoker members of Wareham's Board of Health put the smoking ban back in place.  Wareham is now smoker UNfriendly and
  restaurants, bars, and clubs and organizations are suffering. :-(
•  
• * In Washington State a smoking ban at the Spokane Interstate Fair went down in flames Monday after attendance dropped by roughly 22% (despite perfect weather) and county commissioners were deluged with calls and letters of protest. "Fair policy up in smoke," Dan Hansen, Spokesman-Review, 9/14/99
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• * Susan Barnes of the WATERWORKS RESTAURANT in Rockland ( Maine ) said she has lost more than $8,000 a month in liquor sales to other establishments since the restaurant smoking ban went into effect. Bangor Daily News, February 5, 2000
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• * Peter Martin, owner of John Martin's MANOR RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE in Waterville, said he proclaimed all Sundays in January to be no-smoking. Food and beverage sales dropped 25 percent and off-track betting revenue dropped 30 percent , he said Bangor Daily News , February 5, 2000
•  
• * ''On Saturday night, we had a band, two bartenders, two waitresses, a doorman, a floor man, and we grossed $33,'' said Dorsey Carey, manager of HANDLEBAR HARRY'S bar/restaurant in Cordage Park, after smoking was banned.. Boston Globe Online, September 9, 2001
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• * Owner of the CHATEAU LAFAYETTE, Jill Scott, said: "People can't say this isn't hurting us. I've closed down my kitchen and cut five shifts . I don't know where people are going, but they aren't here." Ottawa Sun, Tuesday, October 2, 2001
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• * After smoking bans were implemented, the number of Buffalo BINGO ESTABLISHMENTS dropped by about 20 percent, while city bingo fee revenues declined by 36 percent, according to officials. The Buffalo News, By BRIAN MEYER, News Staff Reporter, 7/24/01
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• * Mesa, AZ, banned most restaurant smoking in 1996. THE MARQUEE, the ZUR-KATE and ARIZONA JACK'S are the exceptions. They demonstrated that they lost so much business as a result of the ban that they were allowed to permit smoking. The Washington Post, Monday, February 19, 2001; Page A03
•  
• * The most recent Gallup poll on smoking, November 13-15, shows that even in the current climate more than half of Americans, 53%, still want to allow smoking sections in restaurants; a solid majority still favors the preservation of smoking areas in the workplace, 63%, as well as in hotels and motels, 72%. "...it really comes down to whether or not we have a right to tell private business owners what they can do in their own business." Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, The Cabin, September 6, 2001

[StriperSniper]

Harry's Hanover Square

"Overnight, we lost 60 percent of our evening bar trade. For the bar, it was the difference in profit and loss. Sales of expensive cigars had been almost as important as the sales of Scotch" Harry's had been in business for more than thirty years

WOW! I used to work right across the street and often went in for a quick one or for a meeting. By 4:30 you had to fight through three deep to get to the bar, and the clientele ranged from back-office clerks to some of the heaviest hitters on Wall Street.

[ml/nj]

ping

[wattsmag2]

Nice article. BUT, it is you're or you are, not your.

[freeangel]

In that case, this list needs to go to the employees of these types of businesses. They may be the only people who might have a say in these situations.

[Grit]

Bump. Keep up the good work, She.

[elbucko]

Anti-smoking laws are not about smoking. The intent of all smoking/tobacco laws is to get someone elected, or someone reelected to a local or state political office. Nothing more. Those who don't smoke vote more than those who smoke.

[Great Dane]

Exellent data, darn scary too......where are all those non-smokers. ??

[Revolver]

Both of my friend's parents worked at Laurel Lanes in San Luis Obispo (no. 3 on SheLions post) when the county banned smoking in all business except the tobacco shops. Her parents soon lost both their jobs when the bowling alley went out of business because of the smoking ban. Since the ban, the two or so remaining bowling alleys in this county have become unhealthier than ever before. Without customers, the areas have become seedy, run-down commercial voids.

Every time the anti smoking subject is brought up I remember going with my Mom to the voting polls for the first time. Before we left, we started reviewing the propositions and discusing our opinions. One pending prop was for a county-wide business smoking ban. (this was in San Luis Obispo about 4 years before it finally passed.) My mother said how much she hated having a dinner ruined by second-hand smoke, and she was all for the ban. My Dad spoke up from across the room and said he too loathes the smell of someone else's smoke when he sits down to eat, but then stated the unarguable fact that all these laws every year add up,(ie..California) with every law, we become less free. This has always stuck with me, and is probably one of the main reasons I have become republican.

If only there was a way to calculate the exact date we will lose all our freedom at our current rate of new and amended laws, people would look deeper. Too many people vote without seeing the big picture. Is it worth losing more freedom because something may be annoying or bothersome. Think about any vices, hobbies or any pleasure you may partake in, chances are that at least one of them may be frowned upon or unhealthy to others.

I think most would agree, being stuck behind city bus spewing highly toxic exhaust in traffic is a thousand times worst than smelling tobacco smoke. Should we ban diesel engines, including mass transit and highway freight transportation? Or what about the reeking smell of that homeless guy standing in front of you at McDonalds? Should he be banned from buying a cup of coffee? Fined?

We as a nation design our highways with 100 mile detours because it is deemed stressful for the Africanized spotted stink beetle. Yet it is completely unreasonable to avoid certain establishments where the majority of the customers are smokers. When I don't like something, I just try to avoid it, and when I can't when I can't, too bad for me, that's life.

If banning smoking is good for business, business owners would have chosen to disallow smoking years ago.

[lodwick]

Puff bttt

[swarthyguy]

You think the ninnynanny fascisti in granny shoes CARE?

Laughing. They love it. Whatever the economic price, this is a good thing in their state power drenched intoxicated haze.

Unemployed smokers can't afford smokes anymore anyway, with the exorbitant taxes levied.

I just look forward to new nanny laws that po even the unsmoker.

I'm surprised the enviros haven't used the smoking precedents to go after the internal combustion engine.

Massachusetts goes statewide with its ban May 2004.

[cinFLA]

Well, when a business closes, what good is it then!

Even if the above is true, then it is the nasty ol' smokers to blame for taking their business away from these establishments. Boo on the smokers for taking food from the childrens' mouths.