My Dad quit cold-turkey. He got up one morning, and was so disgusted with smoking, that he just quit. Never went back.
It's not for everyone!
Posted on 12/20/2002 10:10:51 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
SAVANNAH NY- A ban on smoking has snuffed the life out of their D&S Diner, Susan and Doug Devall say. The owners of the village's only diner, one of the few businesses on Main Street, say they will close for good Dec. 29. They blame Wayne County's no-smoking law, which passed in January.
We'd still be here, Doug Devall said, if the law hadn't passed.
The couple opened the diner in August 2000, after a string of businesses failed at the same location. Although the diner didn't turn a profit in its first year, the two expected to operate in the black the second year. Then the no-smoking law sent that goal go up in smoke. Nearby Cayuga County has no ban on smoking in restaurants, so the Devalls figure much of their business went to light up elsewhere. That took 30 percent of the customers right out of here, Doug Devall said.
Sales were down $3,000 in July 2002 compared to July 2001. Hardest hit were on Friday nights and Sunday mornings.
The couple had the option of converting an extra room into a smoking room, but the cost of installing ventilation, sealing doors and other measures was too much. Meanwhile, the two sympathized with their smoking customers and let them indulge under the counter, so to speak.
If it's not busy in here, I will let people smoke. I'm not going to lose my business, Susan Devall said soon after the law went into effect.
The decision to allow smoking or not should be left up to the individual business owner, Doug Devall said. Restaurant owners should be able to choose whether their establishment will be smoking or non-smoking.
The bottom line
Most of them are crying their eyes out because we're closing, but I can't keep robbing Peter to pay Paul, he said. The bottom line: He needs around $800 a day to survive, said the couple. It's the days when less than $100 comes in and then the propane truck pulls in and there's a $400 bill to pay, those are the days that hurt, he said.
This stuff is going to backfire on politicians, come back and bite them on the ass, Doug said, referring not only to the smoking laws but to the high taxes and other regulations that New York state imposes on small businesses. Workman's compensation, disability, unemployment, liability -- the cost of insurance is extremely high for a small business that employs two full-time and three part-time people.
Absolutely, said Sandy Brownell, when asked whether the new smoking laws have hurt many small restaurants like the D & S Diner.
Brownell is a saleswoman for Palmer Distributing, which is based in Newark. It's hard for them to make it in New York state because of the insurance regulations and the taxes as well, she said. I see it a lot, more than I wish to, she said about the closing.
Brownell is a smoker herself, and said whether she could light up or not weighed into her decision on where to eat.
Not just customers
It's the customers Susan will miss the most, especially the regulars. In a small place like this, though -- one of the few places for people to gather in Savannah -- most of the customers are regulars. In fact, several people sitting at the counter Thursday afternoon, after the lunch rush, had the look of regulars about them.
It's like art work for you, said Jackie Shurtleff, placing Leon Waldron's grilled ham and cheese sandwich in front of him.
Waldron comes to the diner at least once a day, usually to shoot the crap with all the guys in the morning and to pick on everyone.
So where will Waldron go after the new year?
Nowhere it seems.
I'm still coming here, they just don't know that yet, he said.
Tim Carmon, who works in Savannah and drops by at least three times a week for lunch, also hates to see them go.
Shurtleff is Sue's sister, as well as one of the diner's employees. She's worked at the diner since the day it opened.
Both of these facts make the closing an extremely emotional event for her as well as her sister. Upsetting was how she described the upcoming closing -- the simplicity of the words belied the complicated emotions felt.
Before he started working part-time at the diner, Randy Brown would come in with his father for lunch. Off duty Thursday afternoon, he sat at the counter eating what Jackie euphemistically called a concoction -- a Philly sandwich with extra cheese plus pickles, potato chips, and ketchup -- all on the sandwich, not on the side.
Brown has another part-time job at Pearl Technologies, but will miss the good atmosphere at the diner.
It's the environment that will be missed even more than the food. Mrs. Nobel, a Savannah resident whom Shurtleff described fondly as a fixture, has been coming to the diner morning and noon since it opened.
Nobel said the diner has the same friendly, pleasant extended family feeling as when Betty Kelly owned the building and operated a luncheonette there more than 20 years ago.
Nobel doesn't think there will be another business opening in the space anytime soon though -- a great loss for the village.
The diner will be sorely missed on Main Street, which has more empty storefronts than full ones. A couple of bars, a hair salon, a convenience store/gas station, the town hall. Given the limited amount of amenities and services available in this hamlet, most residents head to Seneca Falls or Auburn for basic necessities and entertainment.
This exodus will seemingly continue.
Future plans
There will be an auction in January, and then the Devalls will try to lease the space. Since they own the building, which has apartments upstairs, the couple's connection with the hamlet won't be totally severed.
Drink beer and raise hell, Doug said, when asked about his plans for the future. His contracting business will continue to take up most of his time.
But ultimately it's Sue, at the diner just about every day, who'll miss and be missed the most. Her husband joked his wife would be able to enjoy a stretch of being Suzy Homemaker.
Based on Sue's response to that suggestion, it doesn't seem likely.
Although the couple got smoked out of Savannah, figuratively speaking, Sue hasn't been totally burnt by the restaurant business. But she would consider something closer to home and in a higher traffic area, she said. In fact, with an eye on the future, the couple is tentatively keeping an eye on a place in Weedsport.
But the 29th is going to be pretty hard, Sue said.
Those aren't my claims and they are all true. How do you keep from walking into walls with your hands over your eyes so you won't see the hard truth?
If you are a conservative, and being here on FR, I'd hope you are, how about this? How about we let free, taxpaying adults make their own decisions? Post a sign that an establishment welcomes smokers and let those workers who CHOOSE to work there work there and those patrons who CHOOSE to patronize the place patronize the place.
I wasn't just being pedantic; I know I've read about people who used loopholes in the law to allow smoking (and thus stay in business). My question is whether any businesses have been able to openly disobey the law while staying in business.
[If the former is true--that businesses have worked to stay narrowly within the law--then your usage of "flaunt" would be odd but perhaps correct; the wording of the sentence would suggest "flout", but I don't know if that's factually correct].
Your wheezing appears pshcyosomatic as I do not smoke. Read the post. I said that anti-smokers intruded into a private property setting and made demands. Yes, I think they owe a courtesy to those enjoying their rightful existing situation. They could request. They could say, "Would you mind not smoking?" They could remove themselves. But they don't. The whine and stamp their feet like the babies they are. Worse, the give aid, comfort, and air cover to the would-be tyrannts gunning for all our rights. Do you seriously think it stops when smoking is banned? Keep laughing you pawn.
Why do you insist on calling them public rooms? They are not. They are someone's property. This is lying pure and simple. And it is used by those who want their way no matter the means to attain it. You should be ashamed to use such tactics.
What are those dangers for non-smokers? I'd like to know what you propose to protect me from.
So true, but it's just their neighbors that can't be trusted. For themselves, why pshaw, they can certainly be trusted. Censorship and prohibition, the songs of the hypocrite.
No one here is making that claim! What is wrong with you that you resort to lying in the attempt to make your point?
My Dad quit cold-turkey. He got up one morning, and was so disgusted with smoking, that he just quit. Never went back.
It's not for everyone!
Land of the free....not.
Yes, Americans should all be required to continue to frequent the same stores we always have, no matter how they change. We should also force those who do not want to go through airline security anymore to STILL fly on the major commercial carriers. It's OUR fault, after all, that United is going belly-up. Darn us, it's our fault that we didn't keep buying newly manufactured 13-mpg cars and 45-round gun magazines... even though they're no longer legal. What's a few felonies between friends, right? Thank Goodness for clear-headed thinking like yours, VRWC. Teach us all to love Freedom obedience the way you do so we can be good little subjects, too!
Some people just don't get it. 
Just a guess since I have no first hand knowledge of the situation you experienced, but perhaps you suffered a backlash when those smokers refused to comply with your request. Perhaps their frustrations at being wrongly villified by rights grabbers boiled over and you bore the brunt.
Of course they do.
I agree.
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