Two millions adults are going out to pubs and bars less as a result of the smoking ban, according to new research.

The survey of 2,098 adults warned that the “drinking man’s pub” was under threat with 16% of those surveyed admitting to going out less due to the smoking ban.

Mintel says the sample equates to two million of the adult population shunning their local boozer to smoke at home.

“Those that are being worst hit are bingo halls and the smaller independent, more traditional pubs because their customers are amongst those who are most likely to smoke.”

Cater Research. Link

“I’ve been loving every minute of it,” said third-year Ashley Meyer wryly as she puffed on a cigarette outside Bar Louie. “You’re drinking your beer, and you have to leave it and go outside into this freezing blizzard.”

“I just don’t get this law,” she added. “I mean, people don’t go to bars for their health.”

Another frequent complaint among students has been the loss of a smoker culture that, until recently, cheerfully lived on in Chicago’s bars.

“It makes for a particular social bond, but now everyone’s having fun and you have to go outside in a self-imposed exile for 10 minutes. Sometimes you feel pathetic,” fourth-year John Elias said. (That is the real purpose of the ban, John.To make you a pariah and feel like a second-class citizen.)

The Cove has also seen a decrease in patronage as a result of the new act. Shawn Sleeper, a bouncer at The Cove, said the ban has resulted in a 25 percent decrease in sales at the bar, a number he attributes to patrons being less inclined to smoke out in the cold. But new problems may arise come summer.

“There’ll be more people out here, smoking, laughing, making noise and then the neighbors start complaining and that’s bad for business,” Sleeper said. He added that the Cove has already been hit with a number of fines for similar reasons in the past few years.

Christopher, a second-year who declined to give his last name, is an occasional bartender at The Cove and a frequent customer of neighborhood bars.

“Before, there were plenty of bars that were non-smoking,” he said. “And that was a choice you made before you went out. Unfortunately now, [the state] has taken the choice away from us.”

Lawmakers in other states have said they passed these laws out of concern not only for the non-smoking patrons of bars and restaurants but for the waitstaff and other employees who were forced to inhale the smoke of others. The latter claim in particular is one with which Christopher takes issue.

“Most people who work here smoke,” he said. “When I did bartend, I smoked a fair amount while I was working. It’s something that most employees participate in.”

But fourth-year Josh Hemley sympathizes with both sides of the debate.
“It’s nice to be in a bar without smoke in your face,” he said. “But I smoke too, so it’s like your mother telling you to eat your vegetables: It’s good and it’s bad.” (No, it’s just bad. It’s good when your mom does it. It’s bad when Big Brother Does it.)

Source: Chicago Maroon. Link

Patio heaters could be banned by the European Union over fears that they are contributing to global warming.

Euro-MPs will today vote on energy efficiency proposals to phase out the sale of the popular gas-burning appliances which are increasingly found outside bars, cafés and restaurants since the indoor smoking ban.

But the proposal has been attacked by publicans, who say bars and pubs need the heaters for customers driven outside by smoking bans.

The trade has invested £86.5 million in heaters over the past 12 months and a ban could cost pubs, cafés and restaurants an estimated £250 million a year in lost business.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “Not content with devastating the pub trade with the illiberal and ill-informed smoking ban, these autocratic busybodies now want to make smokers stand in the cold and the rain.

A UN climate expert questioned the usefulness of a ban.

“The overall impact of outdoor heaters on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions is very minimal,” said Dr Eric Johnson, of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

(This has nothing to do with climate change. That’s just being used as an excuse to go after smokers and make it impossible for them to smoke in public, anywhere. Nicotine Nannies can’t stand the idea that pubs are still accommodating them, and will use any excuse to prevent it.)

Source: The Telegraph. Link

Landlords are reporting losses of up to £1,000 a week since the smoking ban was introduced.

With the new law now six months old, others are reporting losing a third of their trade as punters shun their local in favour of a can of lager and a cigarette in the comfort of their own homes.

In addition, publicans have reported a rise in complaints about other smells once masked by tobacco.

Tony Ford, manager of The Star Inn in Manchester Street, Kemp Town, Brighton, has seen his takings fall by one third since the ban, despite installing two outdoor areas for smokers.

“British pubs are the best pubs in the world but the new legislation is sucking the soul out of them.”

Julia Millham, of The Kings Arms in George Street, Kemp Town, said regulars hated the ban and trade had dropped by £1,000 a week.

Figures released by the British Beer and Pub Association show sales of beer in British pubs fell by six per cent in the year ending November 2007.

In November alone, sales were down 9.7 per cent on the same period in 2006.

Source: The Argus. Link

SIX months on from the introduction of the smoking ban in England, pub landlords in Worthing say its effects could cause businesses to close.

Landlord Glenn Wheatley, of The Elms in Broadwater, said profits had dropped significantly since smokers were banned from lighting up inside public places on July 1.

But while he believes he will not have to shut his doors anytime soon, he knows of others who are at immediate risk of closing for good.

Glenn, 45, said: “I think it needs to be said that what the government has done has affected our trade.

“It has emptied pubs. They’ve lost their heart.

“There is no atmosphere any more because everyone is shivering outside having a cigarette.

“I should think there are a few who have stopped coming to my pub altogether, and people definitely don’t stay as long any more.

David believes in the next year as many as a third of pubs in the town could be lost due to falling profits.

Source: Littlehampton Gazette. Link

Marston’s Plc, the pub owner that sponsors England’s national cricket team, said sales growth weakened after an indoor smoking ban, becoming the latest industry member to say the measure is hurting revenue or profit.

Sales rose 1 percent at company managed pubs open a year or more in the current fiscal year’s first 16 weeks, Wolverhampton, England-based Marston’s said today in a statement. That was less than a quarter of the previous year’s 4.6 percent gain. Revenue growth slid to 0.1 percent in the most recent eight weeks.

Source: Bloomberg.com. Link

MARSHALL, Ill. – A new statewide smoking ban in Illinois has non-smokers breathing a sigh of relief, but some bar and restaurant workers say this ban is bad for business.

“There was about 20 of us in the bar and one person inside the bar and the bartender and everyone else was outside smoking a cigarette,” Frigge said.

Joe says he used to come to places like this, visit with friends and stay for a few hours, but since the ban Joe says he’s spending a lot more time at home.

“Anymore, maybe a half hour and I head home because I’m not going to stand there in the freezing weather to smoke a cigarette,” he said.

Just a couple of weeks ago, before the smoking ban went into place, local hangouts would be packed. Now barely anyone is here, and that can’t be good for business.

Mora works across town at Jerry’s Restaurant where the scene is pretty much the same, empty tables.

A regular used to sit at the counter and stay for hours, now there’s just an empty chair.
“Now with the coffee drinkers not staying or whatever, it makes the parking lot empty and that doesn’t look good for us either,” Mora said.

Source: WHITV.com. Link

HOW sad to see the front page of the Gazette (December 27), showing all the boarded-up pubs.

I agree with the view of Paul Crease, landlord of the Arun View, that the smoking ban has caused all this.

In its present form, the smoking ban is a hateful, mindless piece of legislation.

Source: Littlechampton Gazette. Link

James VonFeldt Says 2006 Adjusted Gross Income Was $914.

VonFeldt and his wife are in the process of selling Billy’s Inn, a business that’s been in their family for 40 years.

“The smoking ban killed me,” VonFeldt said. “My business has dropped 41 percent.”

Source: 7 News. Link

Owner says smoking ban hurt business

Larry’s Bar, an establishment which has operated along Pebble Lake Road on the south side of Fergus Falls since 1997, will officially close Dec. 31. The new nonsmoking law was cited as the biggest factor which led to bar owner Donna Seibel not applying for a new liquor license.

Seibel and her late husband, Larry, started leasing the building from the American Legion 10 years ago.

The restaurant business at Otter Supper Club also has decreased since the smoking ban took effect, Buchanan said. On a positive note, the establishment has seen an increase in the offsale (liquor) business.

“I surmise that smokers who formerly would spend an hour in our lounge figure they’re better off buying liquor at our offsale location — and spending more time in the warmth and comfort of their homes,” Buchanan said. “At home they don’t have to leave warm confines and go outside into the cold to smoke.”

Source: The Daily Journal Online. Link

Talk to proprietors who have amassed a pile of smoking complaints, and they’ll tell you the state indoor smoking ban is really hurting business.

Even after she stopped objecting to customers smoking, Risk said her business is still down by 35 percent from last year.

“From what I understand, it about put everybody out of business here in Middletown,” said Gabbard, who manages the state’s leading target of smoking complaints. “That’s the feedback I’m getting from other businesses. And I’m hearing that from just about everywhere in the state.”

In the end, Boston said, he thinks enforcement will create an even playing field for establishments like his and Risk’s.

(And there it is, folks, the “Level Playing Field” defense. Of course, if bans really were good for business, no “level playing field” would be necessary.)

Source: Dayton Daily News. Link

A ban on smoking has cut sales in bars and pubs, according to new sector survey. The Association of Travel and Restaurant Services says that income for pubs has dropped more than predicted.

There is also a transition period of two years for bars and restaurants that have arranged the smoking areas so that tobacco smoke does not spread to smoke-free areas.

Restaurants that successfully applied for a transitional period to full no-smoking status were found to have actually increased net sales. Bars that have built the special smoking rooms have seen income fall just like those where smoking is totally banned.

In the survey, 15% of establishments said that they have cut back on staff because of the drop in sales.

(In other words, bars that still allow smoking are seeing increased sales.)

Source: Yle.fi Link

The law bans smoking in just about all public places that serve food, except for casinos. But smokers say it goes too far and restaurant and bar owners say it’s ruining their business.

“We do have some people coming in,” says Parker Mills, bar manager at Famous Murphy’s of Reno on South Virginia Street. “But it’s not like it used to be.”

Profits from the slot machines that used to rake in money from the bar have dropped 65 percent since Nevada voted to ban smoking in restaurants and bars with kitchens.

“If people aren’t coming into gamble, you have to raise the prices,” says Mills. “And instead of having five dollar chicken wings, they’re now 11 bucks.”

A lot of non-smokers are saying that’s too bad; and some, like former smoker Carol Mayberry want the act expanded even further.

“I think it’s important for them to stay in their cars or house and away from public places.”

(Isn’t the compassion of the nicotine nannies a wonderful thing? You can just feel the hate oozing from this bitch’s pores.)

Lazzerone says he’s still seen a big economic impact on business, despite the remodeling. And Mills says the promise of an increase in non-smoking customers is a dream that simply hasn’t come true.

“They haven’t showed up in place of the smoking gamblers who disappeared.”

Source: Kolo 8. Link

Revenue has dropped at many taverns – as much as 30 percent in some locations – because of a decline in customers, shooed away by the state smoking ban in establishments that serve food.

The prohibition against smoking, which took effect in January, sent gamblers who want to light up while playing slot machines to traditional casinos or one of the few taverns built before 1992 that have 35 slot machines and are exempt because the businesses were classified as casinos.

Wilcock estimates that 75 of the association’s roughly 300 members gave up food service to keep their gambling and smoking patrons. Most of the membership, he said, is complying with the smoking ban “but are losing their shirts.”

Sachs said the gambling devices made Steiner’s three locations profitable.
Since January, however, revenues from the slot machines are off
29 percent to 35 percent at each location.

“We probably do as well on food as anybody because that’s something we wanted to establish,” Sachs said. “But other places might take a monthly loss of $10,000 on food, but made it up with the gaming. That’s not the case now because the business is not there.”

Herbst Gaming is Nevada’s largest slot route operator with approximately 7,200 slot machines in 700 locations throughout the state.
In the third quarter, Herbst said revenues from the company’s route operations were $66.1 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, a 21 percent drop over the same period in 2006.

For the first nine months of 2007, Herbst’s slot route operations generated $212.5 million, 19 percent less than the same nine-month period in 2006.

“There is no question the smoking ban had a dramatic impact on our route operations and has fundamentally changed the slot route industry,” Herbst Gaming President Ed Herbst told gaming analysts following the earnings release.

United Coin Machine, which operates about 6,000 machines in more than 400 locations statewide, is experiencing similar losses in revenue.

United Coin President Grant Lincoln said the smoking ban created an uneven playing field for the tavern operators, who don’t have the promotional budgets to match the customer incentives offered by the large casinos.

“There’s not a lot we can do,” Lincoln said. “As their volume suffers, our volume suffers. The question is, have we truly bottomed out? The smoking issue has been a fairly crushing blow for the average tavern operator.”

Source: koltv.com. Link

It’s been nearly two months since the Minnesota statewide smoking ban took effect. As Chris Buckley reports, it’s having an impact on bar business on the Iron Range.

Palmers Tavern in Hibbing has been in business nearly fifteen years. Owner John Larson says he’d expected business to take a hit after the new law went into effect and he did immediately.

He says this October he sold nearly thirty percent {less} product than October of 2006.

And the biggest hit was the weekday afternoon crowd.

“The people getting done with work that want to have a couple of beers, a couple of cigarettes, and go home.

These people don’t go out at night, they don’t go out on weekends, this was the only time we’d see them, and many I haven’t seen since October first.”

“Our reps have said they’re at least 30 to 35% down in sales, I do know of a place in Orr that’s already begun laying off people because of it.”

He says pull tab sales are also nearly thirty percent lower than normal.

“I see the same regular players but don’t see them gambling as much, some would spend several hundred a night, and now instead of playing for three hours they’re here maybe an hour.”

The non-smokers who frequent the bar, he says, are happy with the new rules.

But those are people that are there several times a week. He hasn’t seen any new customers taking advantage of the smoke-free environment.

“I’d be interested in asking the non-smokers that say they haven’t come out in ten, fifteen years that stood in front of the county and said, we’re ready to go out. Geez, I’d like to see it – we’ve been here for 15 years, now we’re smoke free, you wanted it so here it is!”

Source: Northland News Center. Link

Beer sales in pubs are down 22 per cent because of the smoking ban say the British Beer and Pub Association.

The Labour manifesto promised smoking pubs and non-smoking pubs but after the election they changed their minds and chose to ban smoking almost everywhere.

Some village pubs are saying that sales are down by 50 per cent which means they cannot continue in business.

In the first month of Ohio’s public smoking ban, the little bar in a blue-collar Summit County neighborhood lost $1,000.

The reason was obvious: The bar’s owner followed the law, telling customers they couldn’t smoke. The bar’s competitors didn’t, and some even ”rented” ashtrays to customers, with the money going into a kitty to defray any smoking-violation fines.

The bar-hopping customers stopped hopping into the little bar. And the regulars, although they kept coming, were buying fewer drinks.

”They’d spend 20 minutes at the bar drinking a beer, then 10 minutes outside smoking,” said the owner, who spoke anonymously to protect himself from health department inspectors. ”Instead of drinking five or six beers, they were drinking one or two.”

After losing a grand in May, the bar owner changed course in June.

”I figured if that pace kept up,” he said, ”I’d be out of business before anyone else. So I said, what I’ll do is I’ll let them smoke until we get caught. The next month, instead of losing $1,000, we made $2,500 more.”

And he hasn’t been caught.

”I had to make a decision,” he said. ”I just decided to break the law and be done with it. It’s like speeding on the highway — you’re breaking the law, but until you get caught, you’re going to keep speeding, I guess.”

In Akron, Corky’s Thomastown Cafe on South Arlington Street has drawn the most complaints: 37.

Owner Billy McFrye is facing a $100 fine, on top of a loss of customers.

”People aren’t coming out,” he said. ”I’ve got numbers from last year to this year, and you can see it. It’s unreal. It’s gross. It’s down at least 25 percent.”

He remembers hearing the argument that nonsmokers would come out to take the place of smokers who stay home. But that hasn’t happened at Corky’s.

”Nonsmokers don’t go out anyway,” McFrye said. ”They’re the cheapest people breathing air. I’ve been in business 23 years, and I know there’s nothing cheaper than a nonsmoker. I’m really upset with it. I wish the people who voted for it would get cancer, that’s how pissed I am about it.”

McFrye built a patio for smokers so they could go outside and smoke without having to deal with rain, wind and snow. The health department, however, told him he couldn’t allow smoking on the patio because the patio’s roof and walls make it an enclosed space — and the law prohibits smoking in enclosed public spaces.

McFrye has an attorney fighting his fine and the health department’s ruling on the patio. In the meantime, he’s going to continue to let customers light up.

”I’ve got the signs up and ask them not to,” he said, ”but I’m not going to fight with anyone over smoking.”

Christ has heard that before.

”I’ve had owners tell me that as long as they’re open, they’re going to allow their customers to smoke,” she said. ”The next fine is $500. That might have a little bearing on that decision.”

At the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on Portage Trail in Cuyahoga Falls, {bingo} business dropped by 25 percent after the smoking ban went into effect, parishioner Matt Pagni said.

Instead of breaking the law to allow smoking, the church bought propane heaters to put just outside the gym doors, along with free coffee. This spring, the church built a patio with chairs, ashtrays and an awning. Volunteers will play patrons’ bingo cards if they have to slip out for a smoke.

Now the church’s bingo business is back to at least 95 percent of what it was before the smoking ban. (So after all that extra expense, they’re still making less money.)

Bars, though, are in a different situation, said Jacob Evans, spokesman for the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association.

”We’re hearing from a lot of bars who are talking about drops in sales ranging from 30 to 40 percent, some 80 percent,” he said. ”And some say they’ve had a 100 percent drop because they’ve had to go ahead and close their doors.”

And, now, winter is on the way.

”What’s going to happen now when people have to step outside (to smoke)? If it’s bad now,” Evans said, ”it’s going to be devastating with the cold weather.”

Nationwide, 15 states have laws banning smoking in all bars and restaurants. Kentucky’s Annual Economic Report did a study about 100 percent smoking bans.

One portion found banning smoking in bars means reducing the number of jobs in bars by 17 percent, which is nearly one in five jobs. Another study done by two smokers with their own money, says that smoking bans hurt bar and restaurant business 80 percent of the time.

Source: WSAZ.com. Link

DETROIT LAKES, Minn. (AP) A Detroit Lakes area bar owner is blaming Minnesota’s new smoking ban for putting him out of business.

Kent Tweten (TWEE’-ten) owned T-F Boonies south of Detroit Lakes. Tweten says he’d owned the bar for only a few months and was working to build a customer base when the statewide smoking ban took effect October First.

Tweten says his “happy hours” were growing when the ban hit, but after that his after-work business shrunk to nothing.

Tweten, a former Moorhead bar owner, says most established bars may be able to hang on but he predicts some will have no choice but to close because of the smoking ban.

Source: KSMC News. Link

Winona, Minn. — Winona bars are reporting a steep decline in business a month after a statewide smoking ban went into effect.

At the 500 Club, bartender Becky Brinkmeyer has noticed some regulars aren’t staying as long. Others aren’t coming in at all. “People used to come in here because they can’t smoke in their car or home,” Brinkmeyer said. “Now they can’t smoke here.”

Bar owners throughout the state are reporting a drop in business as a result of the smoking ban, and with winter coming, they fear it could get worse.

The Winona American Legion has seen a similar decrease in sales, and not just alcohol. Bartender Barb Schewe says pull-tab charitable gambling sales are way down.

“We get the same people. They just don’t stay,” Schewe said. “Once it gets cold, I think it’ll be worse.”

The same story is playing out across the state, said Tavern League of Minnesota director of communications Sue Jeffers. “We’re feeling the pain everywhere,” Jeffers said.
Early estimates indicate an average loss of 20 to 30 percent in bar sales, Jeffers said. Places that also serve food are fairing better. Jeffers, a former bar owner, said a 2005 smoking ban in Hennepin County contributed to 137 bars closing.

The real test to for Winona bars will come in about six months, said Tom Overland, owner of The Bar and the Mankato Bar. He said both businesses have experienced about a 20 to 30 percent loss.

Source: :LaCrosse Tribune. Link

ANTI-tobacco campaigners have slammed bars and nightclubs that promote outdoor smoking areas, saying they flout the spirit of strict bans introduced in July.

Dr Mark Westcott, a vascular surgeon from St Vincent’s Hospital, drives past Abbotsford’s Terminus Hotel every day, and said he was disgusted by a sign that encouraged patrons to “smoke in comfort & style”.

“This promotion may not be against the letter of the law, but it’s definitely against the intention of the law, which is to stop smoking in pubs,” Dr Westcott said. “This is indirect advertising of tobacco.”

Other Melbourne nightclubs have used emails to advertise smoking spaces, while South Yarra nightclub Q Bar sent text messages to its database of private members.

“Q: new licenced smoking area open 2nite so bring carton and lets go!” the message states.

Q Bar manager Richard Chatfield conceded that an area in front of the Toorak Road nightclub had been provided for smokers. He said the text message promotion complied with Victoria’s tobacco regulations.

But Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie said the message could constitute a tobacco advertisement, which breached Commonwealth legislation.

Ms Sharkie called on federal Minister for the Ageing Christopher Pyne to investigate. (I’m telling, nyah nayh nayh!)

(So bars come up with a way to keep their business afloat by providing a comfortable place for their smoking customers to sit outside, and that’s still not enough for these miserable whiny little pricks? Do you need any more proof that these people hate smokers?)

Source: The Age. Link

We knew the pub would be in trouble when the smoking ban came in. As the cold spring wore on and the regulars huddled round the log fire in the front bar, Anne, the landlady, kept saying: “It’ll ruin me.”

Now it’s empty. The front bar is almost never used. Regulars lurk near the “smoking door” and the Sunday lunchers sit in the garden – unless it rains, which it’s been doing since July 1. Where are the non-smokers?

Anne: “To be honest, I don’t think non-smokers are pub-goers.”

Anne, whose takings have fallen by half since July 1, cannot afford to exploit her outdoor opportunity with solutions (decking, marquees, outside audio-visuals). It’s a rural local, for heaven’s sake.

Anne is not renewing her lease when it comes up next year. Is it the smoking ban? “That’s part of it. Anybody driving past looks in the front bar and probably thinks we’re closed. I reckon we’ve lost 25 grand this year. Cold, wet summer as much as the smoking ban.

The lease is up on February 18. On the 19th, the pub will close. Me, I don’t think Enterprise – or anybody else – will reopen it. This is not gastro-pub country. We’re bereft.

(These are excerpts from a long article that really captures the feel of what the UK is losing. We recommend reading the entire article.)

Source: The Telegraph. Link

KNOXVILLE (WATE) — A West Knoxville restaurant owner says lawmakers told him his cigar room was legal under the new smoking ban. But when the ban went into effect, health officials told him to shut it down.

In addition to the business he’s losing, Kalogeros also lost $70,000 building the room. He says he’s speaking with lawyers to see if there is any way he can recoup some of his losses. But health officials say there’s little hope of saving the cigar room.

Source: WATE.com Link

HAMILTON — Sizemore, owner of Rick’s Tavern & Grille in Fairfield, said Thursday he’s complying with the smoking law. He even built a $20,000 smoking area outside.

But business in May was down $32,000 from the year before, he said.

Health department officials offered empathy, but said they could do little to help.

Link

HAMILTON — Rick Sizemore told the Butler County Board of Health that lax local enforcement of Ohio’s smoking ban is giving his law-breaking competition an unfair advantage.

But business in May was down $32,000 from the year before, he said.

“People that I’m competing with are continuing to (allow smoking) on a daily basis,” he said, refusing to name names. “There’s no other factor involved in this.”

(But how is that possible, if, as the nannies claim, smoking bans are good for businesses. Could it be that they’re…lying? Naw, not them.)

Source: Journal News. Link.