Coping With Post-Smoking-Ban Business 

Most reading this have by now witnessed the effects of a smoking ban on even the most prosperous nightclub. But the industry always has been one to adapt and move forward in the face of obstacles that, at the time, seemed insurmountable. Still, the effects are significant.
    “After the law took effect, The Ale House chain experienced the first decline in business in its 15-year history,” says Dave Reid, vice president, operations, for the Florida chain of 23 Miller’s Ale House locations. “For the first five months of 2004 alcoholic beverages sales were down $2 million compared with January through May of 2003.”
    Alternative ideas such as outdoor smoking patios have been considered by operators struggling to draw customers. But for some, the bans have proved fatal or at least crippling.
    “We are out of business and laid off 35 employees,” says Rick Naylon, owner of Jimmy Mac’s in Buffalo, N.Y. “We went from making a steady living for 24 years to losing about $100,000 per year, compliments of the smoking ban.”
    Not every owner is complaining though, even if they did at first. Some have embraced the bans, not that they have a choice. And even many smokers we encounter in bars tell us they like the bar free of smoke and do not mind going outdoors to light up — having become used to doing so at friends’ homes and places of business for years now.

Battle of the Bans
    Since California’s inception of a complete smoking ban in 1998, the trend has trickled eastward at a rapid pace and has become a concern not only for certain cities, but entire states as well. To date, more than 30 states have enacted some sort of smoking ban, and the trend isn’t likely to taper off anytime soon as anti-smoking legislation and rallied support continues, says Michael J. McFadden, author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains” and Mid-Atlantic regional director of the Smokers Club Inc. (www.smokersclub.com), an organization aimed at educating the public on the effects of smoking bans. The Smokers Club, it safely can be said, is vehemently against smoking bans.

    “Both sides can never be satisfied,” McFadden says. “Some bar owners — up to 50 percent even in California, according to a study by an antismoking researcher — simply find all sorts of little ways to skirt the law: allowing smoking late at night, finding an out-of-the-way room that only friends of the bar know about, sort of like the speakeasy rooms during Prohibition.
    “For the most part, bar owners take the 15- to 30-percent loss in business and swallow it because they have no choice,” he says. “After a year or two, a certain percentage of bars will have closed, because the bans put them over the economic edge.”

    McFadden fears a classic slippery slope is in motion. “The core of the anti-smoking movement is simply using bans as a step toward the elimination of smoking altogether,” he says. “Fight it. Resist it.”

Moving Forward and Adapting
    Despite ban opponents, the smoking bans do not appear to be going away. Whether operators resent these laws or embrace them, more and more in the industry are facing the fact that they have to accept them. The key word is adapt.
    Rather than tossing up your hands and tossing out your revenues, why not view the glass half full, think creatively and send your profits higher. Here are a few ideas:
    1. Gear more promotions towards families, the older demographic and women.
    2. Go ahead and buy that new furniture. Now, you can rest assured that cigarette burns and smoke damage are no longer a problem.
    3. It’s time to get that patio or covered walkway. If you have been considering it, this may just be the push you needed. Your smoking patrons will love it.
    Some of the things of which to be aware to reduce problems caused by a smoking ban are:
    1. Some cities have what are known as “20-feet laws,” which state that not only can you not smoke inside, you cannot smoke within 20 feet of a building. These laws are being challenged everywhere to save the integrity of patio profits. These laws are potentially weak and worthy of a fight, if you’re picking your battles.
    2. Hire extra door security to prevent open containers from exiting as smokers go outside. Also, consider wristbands to make re-entry easier.
    3. To avoid the cost of drink replacement if a patron’s drink is thrown out by mistake while he or she is outside smoking, have a shelf by the door for “drinks on hold.” Use a staff person to supervise to prevent problems.
    4. Set up staggered employee smoke break times.
    5. For an upscale touch, have doormen equipped with matches, umbrellas and jackets for ladies when weather is bad.                                                                    NCB