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.

[cupcakes]

BTW, freepmail me with the group. I had to leave an awful group like that on yahoogroups for homeschooling some months ago. I couldn't take it anymore. I make it a point not to tend the local "inclusive" groups either since they are full of leftist thought.

[cupcakes]

Hmm. I don't know that I'm convinced smoking while your pregnant is a good thing anymore than I would put any other kind of toxin knowingly in my body during that time. the baby is in a very delicate developmental stage during this time. I wouldn't be concerned about asthma, but hubby has a neice whose first children she smoked throughout the pregnancy and both are ADHD(and yes, these kids are, no doubt at all there are neuro problems with them) and then her third child she did not smoke and that child is perfectly healthy with no developmental issues.
There is no guarantee to anything of course, but why up the odds of developmental problems in a child. 9 months is such a short amount of time to forgo something pleasurable in the interest of a baby.

[cupcakes]

Cracker Barrel is the worst imo--well if you sit in that midsection--have you all ever been exposed to that?

[Gabz]

Good Grief. I'm with you. Of all people I would think that homeschoolers would be the least likely to be supportive of more government intrusion into private business decisions.

I have a friend in Dover who is basically anti smoking (she's a former smoker) and an ardent advocate of homeschooling, she is a former teacher who is homeschooling her 8 year old twins. she was one of the most vocal opponents to the statewide smoking ban in Delaware specifically because she is homeschooling. Her attitude was smoking would only be the tip of the iceberg and that homeschoolers would soon be in the crosshairs. From what I've been reading lately in the Delaware papers, she wasn't far off the mark.

[netmilsmom]

(when are you due? congrats!)

Ya know!!!! I don't know why but when I began homeschooling I thought that everyone was a Christian Conservative. Whoa BABY, was I wrong!!! One of the ladies in our 4H group (mother of my six year old's best friend) has a "Women For Peace" bumpersticker on her car.
I made sure to put 2 W04 stickers on mine before the next meeting.

[Gabz]

I understand what you are saying, but I think it should be up to the individual and her doctor.

All my OB said to me about smoking was to try and cut it back a bit and in fact just minutes after my daughter was born she told me that if I felt like having a cigarette anytime during the evening to call a nurse for a wheelchair to go outside to have one. I never even thought about taking her up on the idea........all I wanted was a real beer, I was so sick and tired of the non-alcoholic stuff I had been drinking for 9 months. That and a real cup of coffee, not the decaf junk I'd been drinking!!!!

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

I do require very much from the healthcare system or the government. Therefore, I should not be expected to pick up a greater share. We educate our own children. Er should not be expected to pick up the cost of educating your children. If someone requires less service from the healthcare system or the government, they should not have to pick up the cost of providing service to those that do.

Somehow you are thinking that increased taxes on your cigs covers the increased burden on the government. I am not persuaded that it does. I believe increased taxes were merely adopted to fund a greedy nanny state. I am certainly not delighted that smokers pay higher taxes any more than someone who buys a bottle of wine or a gallon of gas. All are confiscatory.

A person who owns a hog confinement should not be able to move into a county and spew out lots of noxious odor on his neighbors. Admittedly, the odor is an externality of his operation that has little recoverable value. However, he ought to internalize that externality. Doing otherwise, is to force his neighbors to deal with that externality, lowering the expectations they had for their property.

Increasing taxes on the hog confinement owner does not necessarily result in the internalization of that externality unless it motivates the operator to move to another county.

Unless and until the confinement operator changes his behavior so that the odor is confined to his property, he has shifted a portion of the cost of his operation on to his neighbors. That is immoral. It's called stealing.

I understand that smokers pay alot in tobacco taxes. But that does not mean that they necessarily pay for the costs associated with their behavior. Only if we return to a system whereby smokers and non-smokers actually pay for their health care directly, can we truly have a situation where we are actually forced to pay our fair share.

[NYCVirago]

Most of the time its forced on her (i.e. from a car in front of her at a red light, etc), or someone walking in to a place while smoking, in restraunts if someone starts smoking and it manages to find its way to the farthest point of non-smoking (happens often) then we are forced to leave.

Omigosh! Somebody in another car had the nerve to *smoke* when your wife was behind him in another car! Sounds like grounds for a lawsuit to me.

[T Minus Four]

Sorry, state law! We quit smoking about the time we moved here, so we love it, but we would have been among the irritated huddled masses outside a few years back :-)

[CSM]

It shows the ignorance of their arguments to try to convince the world that asthma (lung disease) can be caused in a fetus, prior to the fetus even breathing. Somehow, the nicotine transfer in the blood turns into smoke when it gets to the fetus and attacks the lungs prior to use.

[VRWC_minion]

I always liked Applebee's

[CSM]

Read on. I would be more than willing to pay cash for any health care necessity that arises in my life, if the government would quit bilking the billions from smokers to pay for college scholarships.

[VRWC_minion]

but like someone else pointed out Mr. Scanlon is a hypocrit since he does not support businesses making the same decision for themselves in Lexington

Its in his business best interest to see that other restaurants ban smoking too.

[Quick1]

Exactly what I was going to say. Applebee's should be free to ban smoking on their private property, and I should be free to choose to go to Applebee's or not.

[CSM]

People forget how support for government interference on private property will eventually lead to the government interference on their property!

[showme_the_Glory]

Just ate at an Applebee's in Federal Way, WA. It was non-smoking. It was packed with a short wait. I waited, then enjoyed my meal.

[CSM]

"Its in his business best interest to see that other restaurants ban smoking too."

Ah, the "free market benefits from government intrusion" argument. If he feels it is in his best interest to ban smoking, then finds that his competitors are doing better business than he is, it would be in his best interest to go back to allowing smoking.

Your comment reaks of communism.

[SomeCallMeTim]

So, if people would just stop smoking, they would live?

WOW! That's great news.....

My Dad is 98 already and has smoked 2 packs a day since he was 14. I wonder how old he'll get if he stops?

More anectdotal evidence.....

From what I see, second hand smoke is not dangerous, just annoying. I applaud any business that bans it voluntarily... and I decry any stupid government arm that tries to ban it forcefully.

[Just another Joe]

Only if we return to a system whereby smokers and non-smokers everyone actually pay(s) for their health care directly, can we truly have a situation where we are actually forced to pay our fair share.

Let me fix that statement for you, DMWT.

[VRWC_minion]

If he feels it is in his best interest to ban smoking, then finds that his competitors are doing better business than he is, it would be in his best interest to go back to allowing smoking.

Banning smoking decreases costs, especially labor and table turnover. If revenues stay the same then its profits increase. Revenues will stay the same so long as smoking is banned in all restaurants.

Therefore, its in a big businesses best interest to ban smoking. In the long run his bottom line is highest.

He has a duty to his shareholders to provide the largest profit possible. If getting legislation passed enhances his profits then he has a duty to lobby as hard as he can for that legislation.

This is simple capitalism at his best.