Posted on 02/16/2004 8:36:41 AM PST by SheLion
AUGUSTA -- Bar patrons might be finding it easier to take a breath when downing a pint, but the smoking ban is choking local pubs.
Because of the no-smoking law, local restaurant bars are reporting declining sales as smokers go elsewhere to order a drink and light up.
"This is the worst I have seen," said Shawn O'Connor, Jonathan's Restaurant owner. "I am doing numbers (sales he had) when I first started 16 years ago."
Customers don't want to stand outdoors in the bitter winter or foul weather to puff, he said, noting business has dropped 40 percent because of the combination of the ban and weather.
"We're not getting anything," he said. "Now, there's no difference between leaving outside work to smoke and coming here to smoke. This is supposed to be a getaway."
At the Old Mill Pub in Skowhegan, business is down around 20 percent, according to owner Lou Hornstein.
"I have a problem with the government interfering with free enterprise," he said. "I haven't seen the promised replacement of nonsmokers coming in."
"I don't see Baldacci running down here," O'Connor said.
Bar smokers often venture to outside entrances or decks like at the Old Mill Pub.
Having a deck is not a good opportunity to gain back the smoking crowd, according to Hornstein.
"In Maine, there is only three good months," he said. "If it's raining or snowing, you effectively don't have a deck."
Having begun Jan. 1, the law is not only affecting owners, but also their employees.
Susie LaBelle is the bar manager for Sully's Tavern in Winthrop, and her usually stuffed tip jar is regularly half full since the ban.
"I'm a smoker, and it's almost a Roe versus Wade sort of thing," she said. "People don't go to bars to be healthy. We are not subjecting people to smoke. They can come here or not. Let their feet do the talking."
If feet are doing the talking, more smokers are trekking to private clubs for drink and a smoke.
Clubs like the Elks Lodge and the American Legion offer permitted smoking bars and are exempt from the law only if the paid employees agree to allow smoking. The clubs must be nonsmoking if the employees are volunteers.
The Elks and American Legion say they are not aware of increased membership because of the smoking ban, but restaurant owners say many of their regular smoking customers are flocking to them.
"There would be more people gravitating to private clubs because of the ban," said Ron Sailor for the state American Legion.
Allowing private clubs and off-track betting establishments to operate smoking bars is discrimination, said Jeff Hinds, owner of Sully's Tavern.
"It's not a level playing field because the law does not go across the whole board," he said. "It's like saying only this bar can have a smoking area. Owners should be outraged."
The state has clamped down by charging two bars in southern Maine with violating the smoking ban last week; fines can reach the thousands.
In the meantime, bars are trying to find alternatives to fill the empty cash registers resulting from the ban, such as making smoking decks.
Jonathan's Restaurant is trying to bring revenue in by making home deliveries, but many businesses don't know how to fight the lost business.
"I wish I knew what to do," LaBelle said. "If only I could afford a high-priced law firm to fight the state."
No need for high membership fees, and temporary guest passes available for visitors.
The Partnership for a Healthy Maine has this covered.
As you see above, if ANY of the employees disagree with smoking, there will BE no smoking. Personally, I would kick that employee out on their ear. Let them find a smoke free place to work!
One non-smoking employee would not dictate to my business! They would be out on their ear.
AMEN! I hear THAT!
It will get worse.
Your not the first one to think about this.........
Excellent! Thanks for posting that link!!!!
It is an obvious outcome of this insanity. I can hear the liberals now...we had such good intentions...
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
--William Pitt (Earl of Chatham), speech in the House of Lords, November 18, 1783
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."
-- C.S Lewis
The restaurant owners are right........a friend of mine was president of the local Elks when the Delaware ban was passed. he said they had a steady increase in member attendance and membership applications beginning before the ban started, and record numbers when the ban went into effect. Many of my friends that were legion members started going there on a much more regular basis after the ban.
Exactly. The general public does not realize that the state isn't paying for the Tobacco Settlement money and Big Tobacco isn't paying for the Tobacco Settlement Money! It's the smokers in the state that pay for it with the taxes we pay on cigarettes. The taxes, in turn, are used to pay the wages for coalitions like the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine and for Maine Healthy Partnerships! We, the smokers are paying their wages, and they in turn are banning us from every venue.
I'm a smoker, so I lean towards the obvious, but I'm hearing gripes from non-smokers about the nanny state going too far with this.
So far, only 5 states out of 50 have turned into Nanny States.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C.S Lewis
and......
"The role of government is not to create wealth.
The role of government is to create an environment
in which the entrepreneur or small business or
dreamer can flourish. And that starts with rule of law,
respect of private property, less regulatory burdens on the
entrepreneur, open banking laws so that all people
have access to capital, and good tax policy."
President George W. Bush
St. Petersburg University,
St. Petersburg, Russia
May 25, 2002
"The taxing power...must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change."
Ronald Reagan - 1981
Another canard of the liberals is exposed. Time after time, liberals say that the smoking ban will be good for business, because non-smokers will flock to businesses once smoking is banned. Time after time, this is proven to be false, and time after time, businesses suffer. But this doesn't stop the lie from being told again, somewhere else. Again and again.
It's just like the gun grabbers who threaten of "blood in the streets" and "wild west shootouts" if a state adopts shall-issue concealed carry. Time after time, this fear-mongering is used. And time after time, it is proven false as yet another state does NOT see the things promised by liberals. But, facts notwithstanding, the liberals threaten dire consequences again and again, elsewhere, to push their nanny-state agenda.
Bumping the bang_list for the analogy.
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