Restaurant and café owners whose businesses are located inside enclosed venues and shopping malls have been suffering a 15 to 20 percent drop in turnover since an indoor smoking ban went into force on May 19 have claimed that it is not the ban but unfair competition that is responsible for plummeting sales.

Shopping mall managers say the sharp fall in turnover was mainly caused by eateries located outside shopping malls, where the ban on smoking will not go into effect until next year. Smokers who spend their time in shopping malls walk out to nearby restaurants that offer a smoke-friendly alternative, a situation mall managers say creates unfair competition. Managers demand that the smoking ban in all restaurants and cafés, scheduled to take effect on July 19, 2009, should either be moved up to an earlier date or their eateries should be excluded from the indoor smoking ban until that date.

{This is fairly typical behavior.  When bans hurt one sector but not another, the injured parties often demand that the pain be spread around in the interest of “fairness.”} 

Source: Today’s Zaman.  Link

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