Naylon won at the trial-court level and won again at the Appellate Division. It was a David and Goliath battle, and David won. Unfortunately, “David” was so financially devastated by the battle that he had to discontinue the fight.

“David” beat back the onerous policy of the county commissioner only to ultimately give up in frustration. Now, he and 25 other people are out of work.

Link

{If banning smoking was good for business, which the nicotine nannies claim, free market forces would result in lots of smoke free bars. But when bar owners try to go smoke free on their own it usually kills their business, proving the nannies contention is a lie.}

Owner Pat Carragher, from the Lobby Bar in Victoria Street, originally made the move to ban cigarettes in September in support of the city’s campaign to become smoke free.

But since the venue opened on the former site of the Expresso Exchange, Mr. Carragher, uncle to Liverpool FC centre-half Jamie, has done a complete U-turn on his policy.

Mr Carragher said: “It’s felt like I’ve been committing commercial suicide.”

He added: “One particular problem is that, if a group of six people come in and one person in the party smokes, the whole group want to leave because that one person is prohibited from lighting up.”

He has finally decided that enough was enough after frequent occurrences of groups leaving when a small number wanted to smoke, and he has now decided to open the bar without restrictions. Mr Carragher added: “Until the council’s measure is in force as a widespread policy, I cannot champion this very worthy cause alone. It’s just not financially viable.”

Source: liverpool.co.uk Link

The smoking ban is having a devastating impact on the small businesses that dominate the pub, bar, tavern and nightclub sector of the hospitality industry. Fully 79% of drinking establishments report the smoking ban is having an impact and 71% say the impact is negative. Pubs, bars and taverns report an average decline in liquor sales of 23.9% in October compared to a year earlier, nightclubs a decline of 34.5% and legions a decline of 18.8%.

Source: Canada NewsWire Group. Link Expired.

For example, a survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association during the first month of the province’s ban that took effect Oct. 1, found New Brunswick’s smoking ban was having a negative impact on establishments with bars, pubs, taverns, legions and night clubs. In this survey, 71 percent of respondents reported sharp declines in liquor sales. In small businesses the effect was pronounced, with pubs, taverns and bars reporting that liquor sales fell almost 14 percent from the same time a year earlier. At legion clubs, the survey found, the decline was almost 19 percent.

Estimates range as high as 60 percent for the number of bingo players who smoke. Crary and Jim Newcomer, commander of VFW Post 1296 predict that once the smoking ban goes into effect, bingo will die as a source of charitable funds in Bloomington and player will migrate to the Indian casino at Mystic Lake. For the VFW, which rents the attached space next to its club for use as a bingo hall, that could mean as much as $182,000 in lost revenue.

What do losses like that mean to the community? Steve Enebo, a VFW trustee, and Patty Gustner, club manager for American Legion Post 550, rattled off a number of contributions to veterans organizations and to active service men and women and their families — everything from washers, dryers and television sets for the VA medical center to “care packages” for military personnel to Cub Foods certificates for military families to honor guards for funerals to a hospice suite at the VA medical center.

But then the self-righteous will be able to drink and dine without the annoyance of other people’s bad habits. What is value of an American flag on the coffin of a war veteran compared to a benefit like that?

Soruce: Pioneer Press. Link Expired.

The Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce has released details of a new survey on the impact of the City smoking ban and it shows several business bars in particular are being badly hurt.

The survey polled restaurants, coffee shops, bars, lounges, bingo halls and the Casino . Of those, 93-percent of the bars and lounges contacted say they have suffered losses since the ban was imposed. Of those who say business is down, average losses reportedly averaged 43-percent.

All of them say they have laid off or reduced staff and they also say reduced sales have forced them to cut back on the business they do with their suppliers.

Bingo Halls, meantime, say their losses are at 30-percent or more and the Thunder Bay Casino is also reporting losses, although specific numbers were not made available. Restaurants appear to be affected the least with 74-percent reporting no change in business.

The smoking ban has apparently been good news for bars outside of the city not subject to the ban. The Chamber survey says operators near Thunder Bay are enjoying significant increases especially on weekends. The Casino at Grand Portage, where smoking is also still allowed, is also reporting an increase in its numbers.

Source: Thunder Bay’s Source. Link

Two dozen tables sit unused in a darkened dining room of Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant on Madison’s north side.

Pedro’s owner, Jim Martine, a Neenah native who learned the restaurant trade from his parents when they owned Martine’s restaurant in Appleton, recalls weekends when 200 customers from nearby shopping centers would crowd the dining room, reserved for smokers.

However, he said since Madison passed an ordinance banning smoking in restaurant dining rooms in 2002, those customers have gone elsewhere, along with the jobs needed to serve those customers.

Source: WISinfo.com. Link Expired

The VFI’s latest research up to September reveals that brewers sales volume to the on-trade are down 10 per cent, spirit sales have dropped by over 10 per cent and some pubs have already been forced to close because of loss of revenue.

He said: “Almost immediately there was a drop in the number of customers and the volume of sales. Customers are unhappy to be ostracised outside pubs. They are deciding not to drink at all or at home.”

Source: The Publican. Link Expired

Ireland’s smoking ban is being blamed for plummeting bar sales within a year of its introduction, but the government insists the smoke-free policy will deliver a big health dividend as more people quit.

As a former pub owner, Power said he had been strongly lobbied by the trade.

“That was natural enough. They had invested their money in a pub. But we have to look at the greater good, the bigger picture, and that is what we did,” Power said.

[Don't you feel better knowing that a condicending nanny is making your decisions for you?]

A survey for the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA), representing 750 pubs in Dublin, said compliance was excellent in the capital but sales are down by 16 percent.

It claims 2,000 full and part-time jobs are being lost in the Dublin pub trade alone.

Link

Many cafe owners and managers said they enforced the ban initially. But that lasted just a few months, as customers got upset or didn’t come at all, reducing between 20 and 35 percent of total revenue, they said.

Source: Zwire. Link Expired.

The owners, coffee and tea suppliers, blame running costs, the “coffee to go” culture and the public smoking ban.

They say the two cafes are no longer profitable.

The Westmoreland Street shop has been in business since 1896, while the Grafton Street premises, with three floors decorated with stained-glass windows, opened in 1927.

A Bewley’s spokeswoman said Ireland’s public smoking ban had also contributed, especially as a request for outside seating was rejected.

“People who used to come in for a coffee and a cigarette don’t do that now,” she told BBC News Online.

Link

That leaves going smoke-free or no longer serving food. Ronning did that for about two months when the ban first took effect — first going smoke-free, then closing his kitchen.

His business fell off about 30 percent — a drop he said is the difference between making it and going under.

Source: Duluth News Tribune. Link Expired.

The owners of Bewley’s Oriental Cafes, Ireland’s famous tea and coffee shops have announced that two of their landmark Dublin cafes are to close.

The owners, coffee and tea suppliers, blame running costs, the “coffee to go” culture and the public smoking ban.

The Westmoreland Street shop has been in business since 1896, while the Grafton Street premises, with three floors decorated with stained-glass windows, opened in 1927.

He described the decision to close as “a very emotional event, like a death in the family - it’s like a part of Dublin dying.”

A Bewley’s spokeswoman said Ireland’s public smoking ban had also contributed, especially as a request for outside seating was rejected.
“People who used to come in for a coffee and a cigarette don’t do that now,” she told BBC News Online.

Source: BBC News. Link

The Australian Hotels Association claims it could cost 8000 jobs and half a billion dollars a year in gaming and alcohol tax revenue, but the anti-smoking lobby says the bans do not go far enough.

All parties agree that in the year after Victoria banned smoking in gaming rooms, poker machine turnover dropped by 5 per cent.

Source: smh.com.au Link

My business is down 30 percent, I have had to restructure the working hours of my employees. I no longer need them to work as many hours, and never have to double up and have two bartenders a shift. We don’t get enough customers.

I will be lucky if I break even this year.

Source: The Day. Link Expired

A Birmingham pub that became the first in the city to go smoke-free has stubbed out the ban after just TWO weeks.

Bar staff at Bennetts put the ash trays back out this week after the move saw takings slump by a staggering 40 per cent.

Steve Savva, manager of Bennetts, said he was annoyed people calling for smoke-free pubs had not supported their efforts.

“It is a shame because we took a risk giving the public what they said they wanted,” said Mr Savva.

“Since going smokefree, we lost a lot of regulars and only gained three or four people and that is not enough to sustain a business in the city centre.

Link

“If I had known I was going to lose my business I wouldn’t have bought this home.”

The elder Iamunno claims that the restaurant had done well for the first three years. But when the statewide smoking ban snuffed out cigarettes in his bar area last October, 80 percent of his business went up in smoke, he said.

Source: record-journal.com. Link Expired.

My business is down 30 percent, I have had to restructure the working hours of my employees. I no longer need them to work as many hours, and never have to double up and have two bartenders a shift. We don’t get enough customers.

I will be lucky if I break even this year.

Source: theday.com. Link Expired.

“The supposed groundswell of non-smokers that were going to come out of the woodwork to fill that gap haven’t,” said Doug Stephen, president of WOW Hospitality, which operates several restaurants in Winnipeg, including The Old Spaghetti Factory and Pasta la Vista.

The province estimates its gambling profits will plunge more than $27 million this year and continue to tumble the following year, thanks to smoking bans. That’s a loss of about 10%.

VLT revenues have been down about 20% in Winnipeg and Brandon.

Source: Winnipeg Sun. Link Expired.

Despite the threat of a £2,000 fine and possible loss of their licenses, landlords, some of whom have suffered a 50 per cent drop in sales, quietly allow customers to smoke.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk. Link Expired

The respondents claimed a loss of about $2 million in gross sales during the first half of 2004, a 24.5 percent decrease from the previous year, and 611 lost full and part-time jobs.

Source: Toledo Blade. Link

Rod Anderson said his 16,000-square-foot Hereford House has seen sales dip $10,000 a week since a smoking ban took affect in Lawrence in July.

The staff has been cut by 16, to 74 people, to cut expenses. Receipts from tourists have dropped 40 percent. Bar business is down $1,000 to $1,500 daily.

“Happy hour, Friday nights, the place was packed,” Anderson said of the restaurant’s bar. “Now there’s five people there.”

Source: Kansas City Star. Link Expired.

The Meat Market, 811 New Hampshire St., will close for good tomorrow.

The Meat Market is not the only establishment the ban has affected.

Tanner’s Bar & Grill’s sales have been down by 20 to 30 percent since the ban started, said Susan Wood, day manager at Tanner’s, 1540 Wakarusa Drive. Tanner’s has only been open since September 2003, but Wood said she could tell a difference in the business.

“My bar used to be lined with smokers every lunch,” Wood said.

Wood doesn’t see those people anymore. The numbers have dropped and there’s no other feasible cause, Wood said.

Source:University Daily Kansan. Link Expired.

Winnipeg - “The supposed groundswell of non-smokers that were going to come out of the woodwork to fill that gap haven’t,” said Doug Stephen, president of WOW Hospitality, which operates several restaurants in Winnipeg, including The Old Spaghetti Factory and Pasta la Vista.

…The province estimates its gambling profits will plunge more than $27 million this year and continue to tumble the following year, thanks to smoking bans. That’s a loss of about 10%.

VLT revenues have been down about 20% in Winnipeg and Brandon.

Source: Winnipeg Sun. Link Expired.

Members of Citizens for Common Sense - the group behind a proposed amendment that would weaken Toledo’s smoking ban - said yesterday they stand by their decision to stop making contributions to health organizations mounting a campaign against their amendment.

“Why do we want to contribute to a group of people that’s trying to destroy our businesses, trying to tear us apart? Why should we donate to them to increase their funds to attack us? It doesn’t make sense,” said Tom Delaney, who brought up the issue of a boycott Wednesday.

“I will back any individual that has cancer, but I will not donate to these third-party organizations that are lined up against us,” added Mr. Delaney, who said he himself has skin cancer.

“I stopped giving to United Way in 1987 when the very first smoking ban went into effect, and I’ve urged restaurants to do the same,” said Arnie Elzey, owner of Arnie’s Eating and Drinking Saloon and another member of Citizens for Common Sense. “I was right. Here they are trying to put us out of business.”

Officials from the health organizations responded with a written statement condemning the bar and restaurant owners’ position.

“The call for a boycott is yet another example of these business owners showing callous disregard for the community’s health and the health of their workers,” said Anita Dunipace, executive director of the American Cancer Society’s Lucas County office.
“If these business owners think they’re going to blackmail us into sacrificing the health of the people of Toledo, they’re wrong,” said Aileen Meyer, executive director of the local American Heart Association.

(Can you believe the arrogance of these self-righteous bastards?)

“I find it terribly sad that any citizen would suggest people not donate to these groups,” said Dr. Donna Woodson, president of the Toledo-Lucas County Board of Health and a family-practice physician in Maumee, yesterday. “When we look back over decades to the contributions of these organizations, in terms of research and practice guidelines and public education, I cannot understand why people would make these decisions.” (Could it be that you’re putting them out of business, you clueless twit?)

Bar owners replied that they have a long history of charitable work in the community, and that will not change.

“Locally, we have donated many, many times to individuals who have had cancer, leukemia, and other debilitating diseases,” Mr. Delaney said. “We just don’t want to throw money at those that are working to put us out of business.”

Source: Toledo Blade. Link

“If I had known I was going to lose my business I wouldn’t have bought this home.”

The elder Iamunno claims that the restaurant had done well for the first three years. But when the statewide smoking ban snuffed out cigarettes in his bar area last October, 80 percent of his business went up in smoke, he said.

Source: The Record Journal Link Expired.