Actually, my preconceived notion is that bars and restaurants in NY would lose business to the surrounding areas. I was surprised to read about numerous openings. Whether its true or whether its just the normal turnover and the net amount of bars has reduced I don't know. I do wish I could find it again because the reason for posting it was to raise up the issue that just because someone closes doesn't mean the total industry business is down. The true measurement needs to be take of the total plusses and minuses.
I agree. Unfortunately that is not done.
News stories about the supposed good for business done by the bans are generally generated because of press releases issued by the proponents of the bans and because of the inherrent laziness of the so called reporters get printed practically verbatim.
Catering, take-out and fast food sales are all lumped into the same category as dine-in restaurant receipts and license issuances. Sales receipts from package stores is included with that of bars and taverns. And the list goes on.
Earlier in the year there was an article in one of the Delaware papers about an increase in business licenses for bars and restaurants. What it didn't mention was the number of licenses that were not renewed. There was an article with in the past 2 weeks regarding the boom in many of the upscale restaurants going into the takeout business and the many delivery services that have started springing up. The owner of one of the delivery services stated specifically that the smoking ban was the major reason for his increase in business.
Each one of the restaurants that opts to offer a take-out business, seperate from its regular business must get an additional business license for that arm of it.
Granted these are only examples from Delaware, but they do show that lumping everything together can give a very skewed picture of the real situation.