MADISON, Wis. — Five months after the city’s smoking ban was implemented, tavern owners continue to blame the ban for declining business.

Joe Klinzing, spokesman for the Coalition to Save Madison Jobs, said that regular customers are no longer coming in and virtually no new customers are replacing them.

Klinzing said that he blames the smoking ban.

He said that because of slower business, payroll at his bar is down $17,000. He said that that means the regulation is actually taking money from the same workers the ban was designed to help.

Source: Channel 3000. Link

The owner of a bar in Happy Valley-Goose Bay is blaming its closure on the provincial government’s new indoor smoking ban.

Rumours night club shut down last week after serving customers for nearly 26 years.

Owner Mike Lethbridge says there was a dramatic drop in business after the new smoking regulations came into effect this summer: “After the smoking ban, it was like somebody turned on a light. It was just nobody there – absolutely nobody,” said Lethbridge.

Before the ban, Lethbridge says he employed eight people each Friday night.

After the ban, Lethbridge dropped the number to three.

“Last Friday night, we had two staff,” he said.

The Beverage Industry Association says four other bars across the province have shut down since the ban came into effect July 1.

The provincial Alliance for the Control of Tobacco says it regrets the layoffs, but executive director Kevin Coady says the health of people – not businesses – is its top priority.

“In no way is it our intention to hurt people – this is all about protecting people.”

(The sanctimonious twit protected them all right - protected them right out of their jobs into the unemployment line.  And for numerous reasons, being out of work is not very healthy.)

Source: cbc.ca.  Link

Minneapolis (WCCO) ― Minneapolis bars and restaurants went smoke-free on March 31 and some business owners say their earnings have gone up in smoke ever since.

Porter’s Bar & Grill on Nicollet Avenue in South Minneapolis is one establishment that said it’s closing its doors for good. It’s been in business since 1938.

Thirty-five bars have gone out of business in Minneapolis since the ban went into effect. On average, that amounts to about one every eleven days.

“March 31 of this year, when the smoking ban went into effect, we lost about 30 percent of our customer base,” said Matthew Lamphear, owner of Molly Quinn’s Irish Pub.
Lamphear told almost all of his staff this is their last weekend.

“I’ve laid off about half my staff and I’m still losing $500 a day right now,” Lamphear said. “That much business has moved elsewhere.”

He said even a new $9,000 deck could not help.

“The smokers moved and the smoker’s friends moved,” Lamphear said.

Source: wcco.com. Link

Her records show a revenue drop of nearly $57,000, or 28 percent, for the last half of 2005 versus 2004.

“And January was worse. We were down 40 percent, over $18,000 in sales,” Roepcke said.

“Our sales had been increasing, but when the smoking ban hit it was devastating. We were losing 30 to 40 percent a month.

“Our profit margin is gone. I’ve had to take $40,000 out of my own pocket since July to cover our losses.”

Roepcke said he has cut his staff of 14 employees by half.

“The seven employees we have left have had their hours cut back,” Roepcke said.

“Last month alone we were down 50 percent in Budweiser sales from the year before,” Roepcke said. “If the exemption doesn’t pass, I don’t know what a lot of the bars are going to do. Right now, we are borrowing, cutting back and not taking a salary ourselves just to stay in business.”

Source: Post Crescent. Link Expired.

If you haven’t been out to a restaurant or bar in the Twin Cities lately, you might notice a few things are different. The ashtrays may be gone, the prices on the menu might be a bit higher, and fewer customers may belly up to the bar for “last call.” The changes are the result of recent laws, some of which started Aug. 1, that deeply affect the service industry. Proprietors in St. Paul have mixed reactions to those laws.

St. Paul, Minn. — The recent slate of laws started back earlier this year, when smoking bans forced many Twin Cities area bars and restaurants to go smoke-free. Ramsey County’s smoking ban affected restaurants primarily. Some proprietors say that’s led to a drop in patronage.

“The restaurant industry is at a dangerous crossroads,” Day says. “There are a lot of business owners throwing up their hands saying, ‘Why should we operate in Minnesota anymore?’”

“We had to fire six or seven waitresses and two cooks,” Theodorakakos says. “We used to be open till 9 o’clock at night. We close at 3 now.”

{Unemployment} “Claims in the food service sector are up 10 to 15 percent, and that comes at a time when claims overall have been on the decrease,” Hine says.

Source: Minnesota Public Radio. Link

With allies such as former Mayor Paul Soglin and reports from 73 bars that business in July was off by roughly one-third, a new coalition says it is prepared to overturn Madison’s smoking ban.

She reported that business in her bar, at the edge of the city on the southeast side, was down 23 percent compared with last July and that they have gone from three bartenders on a Friday night to one. Additionally, her beer orders have plummeted. She used to order 100 cases of beer per week from each of two main distributors. Now she said she orders 25.

Source: Madison.com. Link expired.

It is about health, but for bartender Lucy Cuccia it’s also about paying the bills. Like a lot of service people, Cuccia makes money mostly on tips.

No customers, no tips.

No tips, no rent money.

“I’m down at least a third,” said Cuccia, who works at Tail Gators, near the corner of East Washington and Stoughton Road, and at the Locker Room, located in the parking lot of Oscar Mayer’s. Cuccia’s boss at the two bars, Dale Beck, has already laid off six night bartenders and the day cook, after seeing his business plunge 60 percent.

Joe Klinzing, who owns South Towne Lounge, showed me figures indicating his sales are down 33 percent compared to July 2004. That’s bad for Klinzing, and bad for his bartender, Stephanie Hall.

“They wanted to look out for my health,” she said. “I wonder if they’ll pay my rent?”

It’s also bad for the beer saleswoman who stopped by while I talked to Klinzing. He told her he couldn’t reorder. She didn’t want to give me her full name but said she’s been to some Madison bars that haven’t ordered liquor or beer since mid-June.

No beer, no commission for her.

Source: Wisconsin State Journal. Link Expired.

Emmett’s Bar and Grill in Appleton is seeing some lean times. “Quiet. It’s been very quiet,” owner Sharon Reader says.

Some business owners say revenue is down 35 to 65 percent compared to a year ago. One bar owner tells us looking at the last two weeks she’s down $7,000 from the same period last year.

Reader says the difference at her business is 40 percent. She says one Appleton city council member suggested the recent hot weather might be the reason business is down.
“Because I keep track of the weather for the last nine years, I can say, I’m sorry, but three years ago it was 98 degrees and muggy, and I’m doing twice in sales what I’m doing this year,” Reader responds.

Since July 1st, lunch time at Emmett’s has been slow. So slow that the owner is thinking of cutting lunch entirely. That means that the day staff wouldn’t have a job.

“I just informed my employees yesterday that they will probably be laid off in two weeks,” Reader said Thursday, “and this’ll be the first time that Emmett’s has closed for lunch in 15 years.”

The problem isn’t just lunch, it’s the fact that business is down across the board.
“My nighttime business has supported my daytime business enough for me to keep these people employed and keep my head on the pillow at night. That’s no longer the case,” Reader said.

“The people in Grand Chute and Harrison and Kimberly, they’re happier than a hog in mud because they’re getting all our customers. That affects our tax base,” Richard Thompson, who represents Appleton’s eighth district, said.

Source: wbay.com. Link

At Jokers Bar, the staff of eight has been laid off. Owner Tony Schaefer said he’s now working the bar with his brother.

“We’ll be closing up if business doesn’t improve,” Schaefer said. “The sad thing is we don’t even know if anyone would buy it.”

Nearly three-quarters of the 64 businesses that responded to a request from the Appleton Post-Crescent reported sluggish sales in the past month, most from 10 to 40 percent lower compared with last July. Some reported sales off as much as 70 percent.
For now, sales are down 35 percent at Shark’s Club Billiards Bar and Grill, owner Mitchell Roepke said.

“We’re a blue-collar, working-class establishment and they’re the smokers. … I’m losing $11,000 in sales in July,” Roepke said.

Source: Madison.com. Link Expired.

“I’m worried about making my house payment,” said Cheryl Irving, a bar manager at Rostamo’s, a bar in Crystal. “My personal income is down 40, 50 percent. I now have to work six shifts, where I used to work four.”

John Alexander, who owns Johnny A’s, a sports bar in Minneapolis, agreed. “I can’t pay my taxes,” said Alexander, who said he has dismissed his private security staff at the bar. “My business has gone down by 35 percent.”

“It’s a slow death,” he added.

Bill Nicklow, whose family owns five restaurants in Hennepin County, watched Tuesday’s meeting and then shook his head. “I was under the impression the world was created to support the people, and not punish them,” he said. “We’re losing our customers. We’re losing our help.”

Source: Startribune.com. Link Expired.

Dannevirke’s Masonic Hotel is a victim of the smoking ban introduced into bars on 10 December 2004. In the six months following the introduction of the ban, profits have plunged $115k in comparison to the corresponding six-month period from 10 December 2003.

The Masonic Hotel unfortunately, has not been a beneficiary of the flood of non-smokers the present government and anti-smoking factions assured the hotel industry, would flock to bars, once the smoking ban came into force.

The smoking ban has devastated the lives of Mark and Raewyn Payne, owners of the Masonic, a business they took over two years ago. In the period prior to the ban, they had a thriving business, with two full-time and three part-time employees.

Six months into the ban and they are approaching the point where it will no longer be financially viable to keep the Masonic Hotel doors open. Mark and Raewyn, with insufficient turnover to afford to pay wages, had no option but to let their staff go.

“Dannevirke pub goers have been fantastic towards us through this six months of no smoking and we have had zero trouble”, says Raewyn, “as we rarely see many of them anymore”.

“We will lose our business simply to satisfy the whims of a handful of politicians and ‘anti-everything’ people”, says Mark.

“I challenge Becky Freeman of ASH and Leigh Sturgiss of the Coalition to visit the Masonic Hotel in Dannevirke”, says Clarke, “and to tell Mark and Raewyn Payne that the ban has not hurt their business”.

Source: Scoop Politics. Link

Revenues disappearing as customers head out of town

“It’s terrible, absolutely terrible,” said Cal Beecher, owner of the Tip Top Tavern. “I’ve been here 32 years. It’s going to close me down.”

Terry Olson, co-owner of Ole ‘N Rick’s North Side Inn in Madison, said business is down 60 percent and he started cutting back shifts for three or four bartenders Monday.
Patty Telvick, general manager of the Buckeye Inn, said her regulars have disappeared and nonsmokers have not taken their place.

Dave Wiganowsky, owner of Wiggie’s, said nonsmokers do not spend enough to make up for the loss of customers.

“We had two nonsmokers,” Wiganowsky said. “They bought two cans of pop and said, ‘Isn’t this wonderful?’ and walked out. That won’t pay the light bill.”

Meanwhile, bars just outside Madison are reporting an increase in customers.

Source: Wisnifo.com. Link Expired.

“I used to work four days. I’m down to one day,” said James O’Toole, a bartender at Dudley’s Parkview Tavern in New Rochelle, who has taken another job driving a limousine. “From last summer to this summer, coming into this season, business is off by at least 45 percent. … The bar is empty.”

At the Willett House Restaurant in Port Chester, manager Dennis Gallagher said the ban landed a one-two-three punch. Revenues plunged — he said he lost an estimated $50,000 in June 2003, the first month of the ban — which forced him to put his by-the-hour bartenders on the payroll to make up their lost tips. And the business he ran selling cigars at the bar has closed.

“From a health standpoint and from an economic standpoint, the law has made a tremendous amount of sense and has been an overwhelming success,” said Rick Lepkowski, vice president of the Westchester chapter of the American Cancer Society. “Culturally, most people are a lot less tolerant of being in places where people do smoke. In terms of education and the cultural acceptability of smoking, I believe we’ve really turned a corner.”

(It’s not very often that The American Cancer Society admits their goal is to spread intolerance, but here it is in black and white.)

Source: Lohud.com. Link expired.

Minneapolis (WCCO) Some establishment owners are claiming a huge drop in business since Minneapolis snuffed out smoking three weeks ago.

The smoking ban went in effect March 31 at city bars, restaurants and bowling alleys, but claims of declining business have elected officials thinking about changing the law.

City Councilman Dean Zimmerman, co-sponsor of the city smoking ban, got an earful Wednesday at a meeting with about 40 Minneapolis establishment owners, including Gabby’s owner Jeff Ormond.

“Everybody is seeing declined sales,” Ormond said.

“We’re down between 25 and 30 percent,” one bar owner said.

“We were not prepared for this big chunk of our business to be bitten out of us,” said another.

“We’re the ones risking everything, and I’m very upset about it, and we’ve got to do something about it,” another attendee said.

Zimmerman was willing to suggest the law could change.

“There certainly may be opportunity for doing the partial ban that would mimic what’s happening in St. Paul,” Zimmerman told those in attendance.

During Wednesday’s lunch rush, there were plenty of open tables at Gabby’s in northeast Minneapolis. The bar was practically empty, and owner Ormond was fuming.

“This is the worst — what you’re looking at — the worst problem,” Ormond said, indicating the empty barstools. “Our bar was always semi-full.”

Ormond said business was down 26 percent since the ban went in effect.

“Our bartenders’ tips are down 50 percent. People come in and have one drink and say ‘Hi’ and then ‘Bye, thank you, gotta go to the bar where we can smoke.’”

Before the smoking ban, Ormond had six people serving drinks on a Saturday night. Ormond said he was cutting it to three, because he needed fewer people to serve the declining bar clientele.

In all, Ormond crossed 51 work shifts off his schedule, an amount equal to 10 full-time jobs.

Source: wcco.com. Link expired, mirror link here.

Two Reynolds Road diners opened by well-known chef Maximilian Korl in the late 1990s closed last week after the latest owners were unable to meet payroll for 50 employees Saturday, one of the owners said.

Business at the Max’s Diner restaurants dropped 20 to 25 percent after Toledo’s smoking ban went into effect, eating away profits, said Jeff Kaminsky, who has owned the restaurants with his wife, Kathy, for five years.

Source: Toledo Blade. Link

“We get a profit and loss statement every week, and the numbers are going down, so it’s hurting,” said Joanna Segyde, restaurant manager.

The workers are in an environment free of second-hand smoke for the first time. On the other hand, the manager has had to lay-off a half-dozen staffers because of decreasing revenue.

Source wishtv.com. Link Expired

“I’m losing $300 a day,” one Columbus bar owner says. “I’m near bankruptcy.
“This is all my husband and I do for a living. This is it,” she says. Saying the smoking ban is destroying her profits. “I rang $37 on a Tuesday. That’s from 10am to 230am,” Leslie said. “I’ve cut all my vendors in half.”Fowler says he’s losing somewhere around 15% to 25% range.

“I feel bad. I’ve let three bartenders go,” Tim Cashin, owner of “Somewhere Else” tavern says. “I’m seeing revenue loss of $1200-$1500 a week.”

Source: 10tv.com. Link Expired

SCOTLAND’S smoking ban is set to cost an initial 2300 jobs, force nearly 150 pubs to close and rob the Chancellor of £59 million a year in tax revenue, a new report claims.

source: Scotsman. Link Expired.

A widely known Lincoln pool hall is closing because of lost revenue since the city’s smoking ban was implemented Jan. 1, the business’ general manager says.

Laurie Anderson of Big John’s Billiards said the pool hall has lost at least $10,000 in three weeks and can’t make payroll. Big John’s will close for good Sunday night after 21 years of business, she said.

Source: Press & Dakotan. Link Expired.

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

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

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 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

Now, I and my managers have not been paid for three months. We’ve gone without so that we could pay the bills. I’ve had to let go a third of my staff. And there’s no explanation other than the smoking ban.

A friend in the travel industry told me she lost a $100,000 tour from Germany when the smoking ban went into effect, as they refused to go someplace where they couldn’t smoke.

Source: Grand Forks Herald. Link Expired.