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Smoking ban has pros, cons for businesses |
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
Cliff Buchan
News Editor
The coffee can on the picnic table near the side entrance to the VFW Post is an indication.
So is the wood-framed shelter outside the Forest Laker in downtown Forest Lake.
When smoking is no longer allowed inside, thanks to a new state law, those with a desire for tobacco have to resort to make shift facilities. It’s that or do without the smokes.
It’s been this way since October 1st, 2007 when the state’s new Freedom to Breathe Act, a new state law that was signed into effect by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, became law. The bill expands upon the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act.
The law, which is designed to keep all public places free of smoke as a health benefit for the public and business employees, has posed more than a challenge for those who smoke.
It’s also forced bar and restaurant owners in Forest Lake to sometimes rethink how they do business and how they address the concerns of those who do smoke.
Business impact
“It’s both,” said Melissa McCann-Archer, owner of Friar Tuck’s Pub in Forest Lake on the pros and cons of the new rules prohibiting smoking.
“Our food business is up, but the bar business is down,” McCann-Archer said.
Around Forest Lake, contacts with bar and restaurant owners tell the same story.
In many cases, business owners report their sales off some 20 percent in the last quarter of 2007 compared to the same three-month period in 2006.
When those losses are coupled with the soft economy and less disposable income for customers, it doesn’t add up to good times for those in the food and bar business.
As the master of marketing and promotion events, Forest Laker owner Pete Paidar admits to be tested and challenged by the new law, one that has left many business owners filled with uncertainty.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” he said, looking back on last fall. “You couldn’t predict one day to the next.”
Paidar says he has seen varying trends that bounce up and down for the food end of the Forest Laker business. Like other spots in Forest Lake, the bar business has taken a hit from the no smoking law, he said.
Paidar says he is bugged by the uncertainty and his ongoing struggle to lure customers to his dining rooms.
“It pains me to walk in here sometimes,” Paidar said. “We’re getting some new customers, but we’ve lost some of the old customers.”
His goal is to continue to build on the food business and maintain the Forest Laker’s strong reputation as an “event” destination with multiple activities. “Our food is so good and people just don’t know it,” Paidar said.
A walk through the VFW and American Legions clubs on a weekend day also reveals the serious business decline that has hit the two organizations. Bar stools that were once mostly full on a weekday are now mostly vacant.
So reports Keith Hegstrom, manger at VFW Post 4210 and Russ Miner, manager at American Legion Post 225.
“Weekdays are real bad,” Hegstrom said. “We’ve had to change hours.”
The change has meant a reduction in bartender hours. “We just don’t have much business during the day,” he adds.
Hegstrom says many of the day customers who like to smoke are cutting back their visits to the VFW or simply staying home.
Hegstrom says the decline in the day business also means fewer noon lunches are being sold and pull-tab revenue has fallen off, as well.
Miner says business at the American Legion has fallen like “a lead brick” in light of the no smoking rules and the downturn in the economy.
Miner says the Legion like the VFW is seeing big declines in the day business and the corresponding decline in pull-tab and other forms of revenue. Like the VFW, bartender hours at the Legion have been cut.
It’s all because of a lack of people, Miner says.
“Without people (coming in), it makes it tough,” he says. “We’ve got a few (regulars) who come in, but many are just going to the liquor store and then to their homes.”
Not all doom
While the bar owners and managers are struggling, it’s not all doom and gloom.
Paidar says he tries his best to keep his dauber up, knowing the food at the Forest Laker is a strong point and his marketing will bring in people. How can people go wrong with a $4.99 lunch and special prices on tap and bottle beers during bar promotion hours, he asks?
Paidar says he has fought some city hurdles in trying to provide a covered exterior smoking area at his business, but the facility is working. Customers who smoke are getting used to the new rules and where they must go, he says.
“The business and the economy will come back,” he says. “The question is when?”
Miner says the Legion is doing its best to buy time to weather the storm. He says the Legion can continue to build on its kitchen and banquet facility to offset any drop in the bar business.
He says he is not overly optimistic, but says there is one sign of hope offered by State Rep. Bob Dettmer, R-Forest Lake, who is pushing to have service clubs like the Legion and VFW exempted from the state ban.
Such a move would also be well received at the VFW, Hegstrom adds, saying he would like nothing more than to no longer need the coffee can for cigarette butts.
“When it gets this cold, they are not too happy with this no-smoking thing,” Hegstrom said.
He adds that the VFW will continue to promote the benefits of no smoking as a draw for banquets and the hours when the public is invited to the dining room. “I think that is the upside,” Hegstrom says of the situation.
At Friar Tuck’s, McCann-Archer says she is giving some thought to offering occasional theatrical productions, the one exception under the law where smoking is allowed.
But McCann-Archer said she is not dwelling on the past, saying that what is done is done and the only real choice is to move forward as best as one can. She says she would prefer to have smoking still legal, but knows that is not the case.
“It’s time to move on,” she says.
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