- Michael LeBoeuf
Posted on 11/06/2003 7:28:30 AM PST by SheLion
|
| Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company. - Michael LeBoeuf |
Businesses Harmed by Smoking Bans
Anti-smoking organizations insist that bans are somehow good for people in hospitality businesses. This chart shows otherwise. These businesses have lost a significant portion of their business as a direct result of smoking bans. Many are closed. Many that are still open have told us they doubt they'll survive much longer.
Most of this information comes directly from businesses that have contacted me or my colleagues. Some comes from newspaper articles. Blank spaces in the chart represent data that is unavailable, or that doesn't apply. (For instance, a distributor doesn't receive tips, and many owner-operators of small taverns don't have any employees other than themselves and family members.)
Business Type Of
BusinessClosed? Business
LostTips
LostJobs
LostCity State
Crocodile Cafe Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Tempe AZ Pooch's Easy Street Billiards Pool Hall Closed 100% 100% Tempe AZ Laurel Bowl Bowling Alley Closed 100% 100% San Luis Obispo CA 385 league bowlers quit when the smoking ban went into effect, with a loss of $200,000. Laurel Bowl had been in business for 37 years before the ban. Alexander Mackenzie Inn Hotel Not Yet 92% 16 Fort St. John CAN "Since we were `beaten' into compliance by the WCB, our business has dropped in the lounge from $1,000 a day to $80. " Beacon Hill Arms Tavern Closed 100% 100% Ottawa CAN Dave O'Connor, who successfully ran Ottawa's Beacon Hill Arms pub for nine years, said the ban forced him out of business. "From September to February, we lost close to $80,000 in sales" Bud's Place Tavern Not Yet 23% Cambrage CAN Gardeli's Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Castlegar CAN Hemingway's Bar/Restaraunt Not Yet 40% 6 Ottawa CAN MacKenzie Lounge Tavern Not Yet 80% Yellowknife CAN Mingles Coffee Shoppe Coffee Shop Closed 100% 100% Kitchener CAN Rupert Pub Tavern Closed 100% 100% Prince Rupert CAN Sky Garden Restaurant Closed 100% 100% 6 Ottawa CAN "It was 100% because of the bylaw. Sales dropped 50%. Our cups of coffee were down 400 to 500 a day, our meals 20 to 30 a day." The Patch Tavern Not Yet 70% St. Albert CAN Tubbys Pizza Pizza Parlor Not Yet 20% 2 Crescentwood CAN Back Stage Cafe Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% 20 Wilmington DE Coach House Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% 8 Wilmington DE Just Mugs Saloon Tavern Not Yet 33% Bear DE Naamans Cafe Restaurant Closed 100% 100% 8 Wilmington DE Elks #1795 Lodge (Private Club) Not Yet 40% 22% Fort Walton FL "Charity money is down 45%. Our Charities are Kids of Florida and the Veterans. That is who is really getting hurt the most by this!" Elks #2256 Lodge (Private Club) Not Yet 20% 30% Pensacola Beach FL "We've lost 70 members because of the ban" Elks #2273 Lodge (Private Club) Not Yet 60% 60% 1 Plantation FL Melons Bar & Grill Bar/Restruant Not Yet 50% Port Charlotte FL The Falls Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Naples FL "We lost 70 percent of our income," Renzello said. "The law put us out of business." 90 percent of her customers were smokers. Bart's Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Louisville CO Bart's had been in operation for nearly 30 years. Gold Mine Restaraunt Bar/Restaraunt Not Yet 50% 50% 2 Fall River MA "There should be places for both the smoker and nonsmoker. I do not smoke but you are killing our business!!! " Buffalo Wings and Beer Bar/Restruant Not Yet 50% Gaithersburg MD Gentleman Jim's Restaurant Not Yet 40% Gaithersburg MD J.J. Muldoon's Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 20% Gaithersburg MD Middlebrook Restaurant and Lounge Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 50% Germantown MD "I'm so bitter today because I have worked too hard to keep this business going. It's just not fair." Pelican Pete's Restaurant Not Yet 60% Germantown MD Tommy Joe's Restaurant Restruant Not Yet 30% Bethesda MD Nutshell Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100% Biddeford ME Village Variety Closed 100% Fryeburg ME Grandma's Restaraunt Not Yet 33% Cloquet MN Perkins Restaraunt Not Yet 26% Duluth MN Aessa Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 35% 6 New York NY Argyle's EasyStreet Tavern Tavern Not Yet 12% Cortland NY Athens Cafe Restaurant Not Yet 55% 10 Astoria NY Blessed Sacrament Church Bingo Not Yet 50% Albany NY Brazen Head Pub Tavern Not Yet 40% Monroe NY Brown Shanty Tavern Not Yet 20% 1 Watertown NY Champions Billiards Cafe Brew Pub/Pool Hall Not Yet 33% Parkville NY Chili American Legion Post 1830 Private Club Not Yet 70% Scottsville NY Coleman's Irish Pub Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 19% 4 Syracuse NY Crossroads Steak House Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Kennedy NY Delmar Sportsman's Tavern Tavern Not Yet 30% 1 Massena NY "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" Desperado's Tavern Not Yet 90% Wallkill NY "I can count on my fingers the people who don't smoke who come in here. The regulars say they won't come." Dodesters Tavern Not Yet 9% Syracuse NY Eagle Beverage Company Distributor Not Yet 25% N/A Oswego NY "Deliveries to pubs and taverns have decreased substantially, greater than 25 percent." Edigan's Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Binghamton NY End Zone Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 30% 1 Liverpool NY Euzkadi Restaurant Not Yet 50% New York NY Fiddler's Green Tavern Closed 100% 100% New York NY We have just lost too many customers to this law, which I did not vote for, bar owners did not vote for, bartenders did not vote for, and the public did not vote for." Finish Line Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 40% 2 Bellerose NY Fountain Bowl Bowling Alley Not Yet 40% N/A 8 Jamestown NY Golden Rail Ale House Tavern Not Yet 75% Newburgh NY Harry's Hanover Square Bar/Restaraunt Closed 100% 100 New York NY "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 Holmes & Watson's Tavern Not Yet 30% Troy NY Hotel McDonald Hotel Not Yet 70% Bath NY Just One More Tavern Not Yet 30% Bath NY Liberty Lanes Bowling Not Yet 27% Camden NY Mama Lena's Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Binghamton NY Mama Lena's had been in business for more than 40 years. Mel's Place Tavern Not Yet 78% 100% Falconer NY "When we bought this place, we throught we were buying our American Dream. We ran it successfully for 10 years. Now the government is stripping us from making a living. " Middleport Inn Bar/Restaurant Closed 100% 100% 13 Middleport NY "This damn state really knows how to kill people's dreams." Millennium Restaurant Not Yet 40% 3 New York NY Nibsy's Pub Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 18% Syracuse NY Rafferty's Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 35% 2 Syracuse NY Richard's Ole Timer Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 17% 1 Clay NY Roesch's Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100% 5 New York NY This had been a family business for more than a century Salingers Tavern Not Yet 35% 2 Rochester NY Sevens Bar Tavern Not Yet 10% Malone NY Shamrock Tavern Tavern Not Yet 50% Oswego NY "It's not right. Our livelihood is being taken away." Slade Restaurant Not Yet 40% New York NY Slick Willie's Billiard Hall Not Yet 25% Tonawanda NY Stumble Inn Tavern Closed 100% 100% Champlain NY Taylor's Trackside Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 50% Remsen NY Temple Israel Bingo Not Yet 50% Albany NY According to Herb Holland, some of the regulars told volunteers that they would abstain from playing bingo, to protest the smoking ban. He hasn't seen them since. The Lilly Pad Tavern Closed 100% 100% Falconer NY The Lodge at the Lake Inc Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 50% 1 Broadalbin NY The Loft Tavern Not Yet 30% Frewsburg NY "Our town has no attractions to draw in outsiders. We have only locals to rely on as patrons and 95% of them smoke. It will be worse when the snow sets in." The Roadhouse Tavern Not Yet 40% Brewster NY Thompson Road Tavern Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 25% Syracuse NY Village Tavern Bar/Restaurant Not Yet 10% Marcellus NY Bliss' Steak Ranch Restaurant Closed 100% 100% Eugene OR Closed after 32 years in business Doc's Pad Tavern Closed 100% 100% 24 Eugene OR "Let's face it, the economy is horrible. But for us specifically, the smoking ban was the knockout punch." The Olsen family had owned Doc's for 16 years. Max's Tavern Tavern Closed 100% 100% Eugene OR The Peacock Tavern Not Yet 40% Corvallis OR Connor owned the Peacock for years - and says it was the ban that caused him to sell the bar. He says business gross fell from $1.5 million in 1997, the year before the ban went into effect, to $900,000 last year. China One Restaurant Closed 100% 100 Round Rock TX
CAN=Canada
If your business has been harmed by a smoking ban, or if you know of one that has been, please let us know. If possible, have the owner contact us. Newspaper articles are also welcome. Please include the URL. .
Click here to contact us.
Last Update: Saturday, November 01, 2003
Second hand smoke causes asthma.
There is absolutely nothing to back up that statement in the way of scientific proof.
I will not deny that SHS may bring on an asthma attack - but it didn't cause the asthma to begin with.
Just the fact that there are more and more places where no one is going to be exposed to SHS and rates of asthma cases are nearly skyrocketing shows that statement to be false.
I was born in 1960, a time when smoking was much more prevalent than it is now. If exposure to smoking caused asthma, why was I nearly 30 before I ever met anyone who had asthma? Another question, why are so many children being diagnosed with it when the numbers of smoking parents (and particularly pregnant mothers) is on the decline?
I have no intention of depriving you or your son of driveng, just making the point that most of the things we do, are not detailed in the constitution.
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can't provide info for Florida - I no longer live there and have never worked there - but I sure do have details for Delaware.
I'm sure you can imagine my being a little bit annoyed with someone in Florida claiming to know better about what is going on or has gone on in Delaware.
The same with New Jersey, All the stories about how New Jersey is benefiting from the New York Smoking ban are from New York sources, None of the New Jersey papers have a word to say about it.
Actually the worst thing of all was Bloomberg calling the Delaware ban a big success in Sept. and Oct. of 2002 even though the ban didn't go into effect until that Thanksgiving and no one in the press called him on it.
heck after the ban went into effect in Delaware most of the money my husband and I normally spent when we went out started going to Maryland. and let me tell you - those bartenders and waitstaff in Maryland LOVE the ban in Delaware.
Same here but my money stays in NJ, After the ban went into effect in NYC I stopped going. Before the ban I was there all the time. New Jersey has a lame bar closing time of 2 or 3am depending on the town while NYC never sleeps and after the bars closed in NJ we used to get on the bus (Which convienately the bus stop is outside the bars in my town and it's a short 10 minute ride and it runs all night) and head into the city and there was always a few other groups who did the same. Not anymore I go to the diner or just go home and everybody else seems to do the same and that bus is now always empty. The only time I go into the city is when I have to pass through it when visiting family/friends on Long Island and even then I will go out of my way and take the 59th street bridge instead of the Queens-midtown tunnel just to deny Bloomberg the toll.
The same when the ban went statewide, I haven't spent a cent in any of the bars/restaurants whenever I go back to my other location upstate. When I have wanted to go out I have taken a boat across Lake Champlain to the bars in Vermont or drove up to Montreal (Yeah, Wonderful I have to go to a foriegn country because America isn't free anymore).
I'm so happy I don't live in Delaware anymore.... But they are not rid of me. I'm only an hour away from the southern line and only 2 hours from the capitol. After being there for better than 20 years I've got too much history to just walk away. And my friends in the hospitality industry know I won't forget them.
I am happy I don't live in New York anymore, Before the ban I worked and lived in both NJ & NY after the ban I switched permanetly to NJ, Not just because of the ban but it was the last straw. I still go back often because of family and friends (though because of the way NY is just going to hell they are also leaving in droves) and because the Adirondack Park is just the most beautiful place in the world to give up.
The euphemism ole Stan the sham uses for scrapping a study doesn't come up the way he wants he claims is the study wasn't the best designed study.
From his study looking at 97 other studies (Many/Most of which were his own previous ones)
Conclusion: All of the best designed studies report no impact or a positive impact of smoke-free restaurant and bar laws on sales or employment. Policymakers can act to protect workers and patrons from the toxins in secondhand smoke confident in rejecting industry claims that there will be an adverse economic impact.
Well who do you think defines which are the best designed studies, He does of course and any study that didn't come to his conclusion of course didn't make it as a best designed study.
THAT WAS MY WHOLE POINT.....
Smoking ban forces tavern owner to sell a family institution
The Empire strikes out
Three weeks after its Rochester location folded, Empire Brewing Co. on Tuesday abruptly closed its original and last remaining brewpub, in Syracuse's Armory Square...
The state smoking ban also appeared to reduce traffic, especially late at night.
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/business-4/1064392700312677.xml?syrbubiz
One to keep an eye on, Though it doesn't give a %
Tavern asks council for help
Shamrock Tavern wants to serve alcohol outside, saying smoking ban has hurt.
http://www.syracuse.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1065776130154210.xml?syrnegosw
And that is the strawman argum,ent from the gnatzies - businesses will not be hurt. Busines wlll no be hurt??? my left foot.
Obviously, you're another FR Totalitarian who thinks that the Constitution gives rights, rather than protecting God given rights and limiting government and what YOU, the totalitarian, are able to use government to do to other Americans.
Businesses should be able to get Smoking Licenses, just like the can apply for and get liquor licenses. That way, the default for businesses will be non-smoking, but any that choses can become a smoking establishment.Why license it? At best all that does is provide money and jobs to bureaucrats. At worst it lets them limit and control it above and beyond what the owners would do.
Simply requiring a "smoking permitted in this establishment" sign at each entrance accomplishes the same thing without governmental interference.
-Eric
Who's going to require it? What will you do if people don't?
Give me a break, that is regulation, just an ineffective one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.