Applebee's will ban smoking

Tribune Chronicle ^ | 05/11/04 | Staff, wire reports

[MissTargets]

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Applebee's restaurants in Niles and Boardman will be among those in Ohio that will go nonsmoking after a decision by Thomas and King, the nation's 11th-largest restaurant operator, the company announced Monday.

The policy at the Niles restaurant will take effect Monday and be implemented at all stores by month's end, the company said. Robert Holmes, 83, of Warren said he'd like to see other restaurants follow Applebee's lead in the no-smoking policy.

''Second-hand smoke is known to be bad for people,'' Holmes said Monday at the Eastwood Mall. ''Smoking spoils my dinner.''

Holmes, a former tobacco user, said he has eaten at Applebee's in Niles several times.

Besides Ohio, the smoking ban also will take effect at the franchise company's Applebee's and Johnny Carino's restaurants in Kentucky, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Indiana locations, the company said. Franchises owned by other operators would not be affected.

Mike Scanlon, Thomas and King's chairman and chief executive officer and vice-mayor of Lexington, was a vocal supporter of the city's indoor smoking ban that went into effect April 27. Scanlon said the timing of the company's action was coincidental.

''I can see both sides of the issue,'' Scanlon said. ''However, as a businessman, I need to listen to my customers and do what I believe is right for my business.

''While this decision will inconvenience a small percentage of our customers, I am certain that our new policy will attract many new customers who are seeking a smoke-free dining experience,'' he added.

Some of Thomas and King's nearly 80 restaurants already are smoke-free, including those in cities with municipal smoking bans such as Lexington and Tucson, Ariz. Scanlon said three restaurants the company has opened in the last year - one each in Arizona, Ohio and Kentucky - are smoke-free by choice.

Six months ago, the company banned smoking for employees. Scanlon said two of the company's nearly 6,000 workers quit over the issue.

Applebee's, based in Overland Park, Kansas, operates about one-third of its locations with the rest run as franchises.

[Gabz]

Just stay out of private businesses that permit smoking and you won't have a problem.

[MissTargets]

California has already been hit with the cigarette-Nazi's. Now it's even the friggin' BEACHES! Their claim there: litter

Here they don't want you to smoke, at the 4-H Horse Shows!
Not a ban, but a strong encourgement to avoid all tobacco products.

(for the children)

[Gabz]

As a friend of mine once asked a long time ago.........aren't you getting to the point where you hate children??????

It was a totally sarcastic/rhetorical question but she was excoriated for even having that thought let alone expressing her frustration with the "it's for the children" mantra.

[SheLion]

Sorry :( I just pinged the puff list.

I'm not on your "Puff List?" You have to add me. :)

[wildandcrazyrussian]

Just caught this thread.

Over here in West Virginia, our local county's Heil!-th (I mean Health) Department adopted an ordinance -- WITHOUT A PUBLIC HEARING (and after all the opponents were tricked into leaving the meeting, based on a firm "promise" that they would NOT vote without a public hearing) -- to outlaw ALL smoking in EVERY busines and every publicly-accesible location in the ENTIRE COUNTY.

The sanctimonious fools have gone so far as to include in the "Penalties" section of the ordinance a provision that "willful violation" of ANY PROVISION of the ordinance is a misdemeanor pubnishable with a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000).

What does that mean, something like smoking where ypu shouldn't? No, the ordinance's penalties for "any violation" covers any reluctance to jump when called. It includes the demand that every business owner put their stupid red SMOKING PROHIBITED sticker on the front door and take direct action to prevent smoking, lest the antismoking zealots turn you in and you have to pay the fine.

I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I consider the actions taken by the Heil!-th I mean Health Department to be unethical and unconstitutional, and I will try to contact other business owners to mount a Constitutional challenge to loss of private property rights.

That is, even if no one ever smokes on my premises, I am legally liable for up to a thousand dollar fine for "violation" of this ordinance by NOT willingly becoming their agent. And yet they talk about "voluntary compliance"!

[MissTargets]

One reply said there are alot of smokers in Northern Ohio. Who wants to go into business with me selling Oxygen in Northern Ohio, there has got to be alot of C.O.P.D. and emphysema up there.

That was me, and it's Northeast Ohio. The Mahoning Valley has one of the highest Senior citizen populations in the Country. Given the fact that this is the "rust" belt, and most are probabaly retired from "stinking, smoke blowing steel mills", you might have something there.

BTW Welcome to FreeRepublic.

[Skooz]

Just stay out of private businesses that permit smoking and you won't have a problem.

After being raised in a home where both parents smoked, all their friends smoked and everyone (no exxageration) in my extended family smoked, I finally have that option. Funny, I haven't had an asthma attack since I moved out of my parent's home.

I do my best to avoid others' lung excrement. If I end up inhaling the crap, I move on. If a business is so full of smoke that it makes it difficult to breathe, I won't patronize the business. It's that simple.

[nevergore]

Here's one disagreeable "scent" we can both probably agree on....

Let's extend this to little old ladies that are so heavily perfumed your eyes burn in their presence and you can literally "taste it" hours after they leave.......

NeverGore :^)

[Skooz]

Oh man, I don't know what brand of perfume they use, but it all smells the same. I think the bottle reads: "Pour this all over you body until half empty, then add a dab more."

I have to agree with you on that. Man, that stuff is terrible.

[Gabz]

Smoking around people with asthma is outright wrong. I've never had that problem because I only know one person with asthma and she is also a smoker.

I've got nothing against businesses that choose to go smoke-free for whatever reasons. And your attitude about taking your business elsewhere is admirable.

One thing I have consitently said to those who wish to not be around smokers is to speak with the owners of their favorite places about changing the policy. I generally get laughed at and told they will talk to their elected officials and get it done everywhere.

Your politely couched slur on smokers "lung excrement" is taken in the derogatory manner in which it is meant.

[Skooz]

Your politely couched slur on smokers "lung excrement" is taken in the derogatory manner in which it is meant.

LOL! That goes back 20 or so years and my heavy smoking friend, Billy.

I had recently quit smoking and became annoyed that Billy would light up wherever and whenever he wanted: In the car with the windows rolled up, in the house (mine, others, no matter). Anywhere.

And his cigs seemed to be programmed to send their smoke directly to my face. It was uncanny. I could be on the other side of a 30 foot-wide room, and the cig smoke would be in a line directly from his cigarette, across the room, to my lungs. It looked like a meandering, white piece of fluffy rope.

I used to curse and swear at him, but it didn't do any good. He just kept firing the things up. I developed the term "lung excrement" to let him know how I felt about me inhaling his smoke all the time.

[MissTargets]

Let's extend this to little old ladies that are so heavily perfumed your eyes burn in their presence and you can literally "taste it" hours after they leave..

At least my cigarette smoke dissipates after awhile (in your hair and clothes most likely). As a smoker, I really should not be able to smell it, but I do.

[Gabz]

So I was right. thanks.

[MissTargets]

You guys do such a good job on defending rights and freedoms, that I normally don't chime in on these smoking threads. I posted this one, so I had to make some replys. I do read them all thou. We take a lot of hits as smokers. It's nice to see that there are FReepers who do not smoke, still defend freedoms.

I have yet to see on the gun related threads, people calling for more "gun control"

[Gabz]

As a smoker, I really should not be able to smell it, but I do.

It never ceases to amaze me how the anti-smoker crusaders always seem to know better than us low-life smokers what we can or can not smell and/or taste.

I can't tell you how many times I have been called a liar by one of them when I claim I have a problem with certain odors or tastes. In fact I've actually been told by several of them that if I didn't smoke the smell/taste wouldn't bother me.

Circular logic at it's best. If I didn't smoke I could smell and taste, but it is because I smoke that I smell and/or taste things in a paricular way.

Sure makes a lot of sense to me.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

I don't believe that I should have to bear ANY cost for treating ANY condition associated with obesity, nor do I believe that I should bear ANY cost for treating ANY condition associated with smoking. Being forced to either is an outrage.

No double standard from me.

[Myrddin]

Applebee's in Pocatello went smoke free last year. The place is always wall to wall with customers. Food and service is good. Denny's is one of the last few smoking restaurants in town. It smells gross. The restaurant is empty most of the day until the 10 PM to 2 AM rush as the bar patrons arrive to drink coffee and smoke.

There is a heavy population of smokers in Northeast Ohio.

Smoking and obesity too?

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

First, I am not an anti-smoking advocate, but I was responding to someone's attempt to make a connection between anti-smoking advocateswith pro-homosexual activists. I am sure that you also took offense by any attempt to make such a connection and merely failed to note your offense on this thread.

Second, I didn't paint with a broad brush. It just so happened that while one anti-smoking activist is a sodomite and one person implicated with the Iraqi situation appears to be a smoker.

It's called illustrating absurdity by being absurd.

[Gabz]

The only type of gun control I favor is two steady hands.

The only type of smoking bans I favor are those imposed by the owner of the property. So I applaud Applebee's for making this decision on their own without (known) government force.

With that said, I just hope that Applebee's will now just get out of the issue altogether, instead of jumping on the ban-wagon (that is intentional spelling) and pushing government forced bans on other businesses. I watched it happen in Delaware, where the chain-restaurant controlled Restaurant Association backed the smoking ban as long as there were no exceptions for bars and casinos.

[Gabz]

You are the one that claimed being forced to bear the cost for smokers was immoral......I said having to bear the costs of ANYTHING others do is immoral, I just used obesity as another example.

I pay for my own health care through my premiums and deductibles, just like my car and homeowners insurance.......no one is paying for me. I have to pay extra on my car insurance for uninsured drivers, I have to pay extra on my health insurance for uninsured people, same with my homeowners insurance. Haven't had a claim on my car insurance in something like 10 years, 11 years on the homeowners insurance, only a few (non-smoking related) things other than regular checkups on my health insurance in more than 20 years.

Yet every year all of my premiums go up, up, up. It's not me causing it.....it's those without insurance, whether they are smokers or not, whether they are fat or not.

Smokers more than pay their fair share of health costs for themselves.......that duck don't quack.