Posted on 08/02/2005 10:24:13 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
APPLETON (AP) - At Jokers Bar, the staff of eight has been laid off. Owner Tony Schaefer said he's now working the bar with his brother.
Schaefer is among many business owners still fuming a month after a ban on smoking at all indoor workplaces was enacted in this city.
The ban was approved by 56 percent of voters in an April 5 referendum and went into effect on July 1. Madison's similar smoking ban went into effect on the same day, although there was no referendum preceding it.
"We'll be closing up" if business doesn't improve, Schaefer said. "The sad thing is we don't even know if anyone would buy it."
Some say they have reason to fume.
Nearly three-quarters of the 64 businesses that responded to a request from the Appleton Post-Crescent reported sluggish sales in the past month, most from 10 to 40 percent lower compared with last July. Some reported sales off as much as 70 percent.
Many tavern owners in Madison have made similar complaints, and sympathetic members of the City Council have already tried once, unsuccessfully, to repeal the ban.
More than 30 tavern owners in Appleton have filed a lawsuit to repeal the ban, and the Common Council this month is expected to review a proposal that would exempt taverns and bar areas of restaurants, similar to a measure proposed statewide.
For now, sales are down 35 percent at Shark's Club Billiards Bar and Grill, owner Mitchell Roepke said.
"We're a blue-collar, working-class establishment and they're the smokers. ... I'm losing $11,000 in sales in July," Roepke said.
But Connie Olson, executive director of Community Action for Tobacco Free Living, a group that pushed for the ban, said some of the negative talk becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"All customers hear are bartenders complaining. Who wants to hear that?" Olson said. "They have to get past this personal vendetta. Don't do that to customers. They need to promote their businesses as smoke-free."
Restaurants reported faring better than bars.
Family restaurants like Applebee's and Perkins, and upscale places like Black and Tan, where smoking had previously been allowed at the bar, saw no ill effect in their July revenues.
At The Bar in downtown Appleton, regular lunchtime diner Carl Schuh of Black Creek compared before and after.
"It's cleaner, fresher and airier," he said.
Several businesses said they were boosting advertising and offering specials to encourage customers to come back, while still lobbying officials for a reversal on the ban.
You forgot one big group.
I’ll bet most of these people support all the sodomite rights laws
How much is GAIDS costing us!
(the g was dropped (gay) after this was coined (you figure out why) )
Let's try a ban there and see what happens!
I do HATE smoke but I think a private business owner has the right to allow a legal substance in their own establishment under most circumstances.
I do not, though, condone smoking. I do encourage people to stop smoking as it is bad for their health. I know life is meant to be enjoyed but once you stop smoking you will find that life is much better without the smoke. That is what everyone I know who has stopped tells me. Most of them hate smoking worse than me, who only by the grace of God, has never had to deal with that vice (not that I haven't had to deal with others).
Shove it yourself.
Lovely personality you have there.
You do not have the right to use a dangerous product anywhere and at anytime of your choosing...if it endangers others.
Funny, that's the same arguement gun-grabbers use.
There's nothing in the world you can say that will justify your so-called "right" to inflict harm on others.
And you're coming for the guns next, right?
You (or anyone) has the absolute right to kill themselves. You do not have the right to take others with you.
Tell that to drunk drivers. Oh, wait...you're ALLOWED to drink in bars. For now.
Go away now!
You like to tell people what to do, don't you.
It was tried. IIRC, SF tried to shut down the bathhouses where the disease was discovered. The Sodomite lobby fought tooth and nail against the closures and "won".
Less drinkers in bars, less DWI. These bans mean lives saved.
Adolf doesn't like Jews, and he seeks to enact a law that bans businesses from serving them.
Bubba doesn't like black people, and he seeks a law that bans businesses from serving them.
Josh doesn't like people who carry guns, and wants to ban them from entering any business.
Steve doesn't like smokers, and he is very happy indeed with a law that prohibits them from lighting up in any food-serving business.
Can you put your finger on a specific difference between these people, that makes one of them good and the others bad? Other than the fact that one of them is you.
No but all those smokers who are staying home to drink now were.
Steve got a majority vote.
And you have proof of this?
Those laid off workers were serving soft drinks?
"Less drinkers in bars, less DWI. These bans mean lives saved."
True.
Shear numbers would mean less DWI's statistically...
Hmmm...
Let's ban Blacks, Jews, and women.
Those numbers would REALLY drop then.
Paper tiger.
Oh please don't tell me you've gone to work. You need to get your priorities straight here, Ray. There's some friendly debate that needs to get done around here and YOU might have just left me hanging here in the breeze?
Blacks, Jews and women drink heavily?
The workers who served drinks to the smokers were laid off because the smokers stopped drinking and then driving home.
Less drinks served, less drunken drivers. Seems pretty simple.
"Blacks, Jews and women drink heavily?"
ZIIIIINNNNG!
That's the sound of my POINT goin over your head..
Hmmm..
Would it have been better if I used the stereotypical, Irish, Mexicans, and Italians?
geez
And besides.
Here in MN it is 0.08 for DWI. I would not consider that "Heavily"
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