Story Photos
Smoking-ban blues
Tuesday, January 1, 2008 5:13 AM PST
By Barbara LaBoe
Printable version
E-mail this articleWhen Washington's voter-approved indoor smoking ban took effect two years ago, smoker Mike Yarbrough was fighting mad.
"I was ready to go to war," he said recently in the Scottie Lounge of the Hilander Bowl complex.
Local bar and tavern owners felt the same, with many predicting the ban would hurt or even kill their business.
People aren't going to want to stand out in the rain to light up, and this isn't California, they said, alluding to another state that banned bar smoking.
The voter-approved ban took effect Dec. 8, 2005. Last month, for the two-year anniversary, state officials released figures they say show the business effect of the smoking ban has been "negligible." The 2006 revenue figures show modest growth in restaurant and bar income. Second quarter 2007 figures also show "continued growth" consistent with other businesses statewide.
From second quarter 2006 to 2007, restaurant and bar sales increased 8.2 percent, compared to 7.9 percent growth in total taxable retail sales statewide, according to the state Department of Revenue. In Cowlitz County the increase was 12.9 percent for bars and restaurants compared to 10.9 percent for all taxable retail sales.
"That's good news, and not surprising," said Theresa Cross, with Clark County Public Health, who released the figures. "We expected our experiences to be similar to those of other states that have enacted comprehensive smoking laws, and that is exactly the case."
Local bar and tavern owners, though, don't agree. They say the ban has hurt business and that the state figures don't take into account other factors, such as rising costs. They're still angered that the decision to have smoking in their facilities was taken away from them.
"I'd say it's been a 20-18 percent drop in business, and that's what I hear from other owners too," said Bruce Birchfield, owner of Kelso's Maltese Bar and Grill. "The people I lost were the older customers, the ones who are not going to stand out in the sidewalk in the rain and smoke a cigarette."
"It cost us a lot of business -- a lot," said Russ Kallich, owner of the Broadway Tavern in Longview.
He estimates he's lost 15 percent to 20 percent of his pre-ban business. "I have a lot of (former) regular customers who haven't been in here for two years because they're over in Oregon."
Oregon also has banned bar smoking, but the law doesn't take effect for another year.
The state's numbers show overall increases, but Jim Springer, owner of the Scottie Lounge inside the Hilander, said there are other factors to consider.
"The revenue might be up but not to the growth rate it should be," Springer said. "To stay even with price increases and inflation and the costs of fuel and the general cost of doing business, people have had to raise their prices."
And Springer said other bars have cut hours because the smoking ban decreased their customers. The Broadway, which used to stay open until 2 a.m., now closes at 11 p.m. most nights, Kallich said.
Springer has lost business on weekends but said the early closings at other bars have actually increased his customers on weekdays -- not that he's happy about profiting from other bars' struggles. People who work late, for example, won't get off at 10 p.m. and go to a bar they know will close within the hour, so they head to the Hilander.
Still, Springer said the extra business barely makes up for the weekend customers he loses to area tribal casinos or Oregon -- both of which allow smoking.
"On Friday and Saturday we're down about $1,000 total, but on Sunday through Thursday we're up $1,200," he said. "So the net gain is about $200 for the whole week and that's not even allowing for inflation."
Springer, who doesn't smoke, said he believes the smoking ban is a good thing for society as a whole, but he still quibbles with how it was applied. He'd like bars to have options, including installing smoking rooms with forced air controls that would keep smoke in the room and away from other patrons and employees.
State officials make no secret that they'd like to see the number of Washington smokers reduced. The state has an 11-year plan to cut the smoking rate to 16.5 percent. In 2006, the state rate was 17 percent, down from 22.4 percent in 1999 when the program started. The need is particularly great in Cowlitz County, officials say, where adults, teenagers and pregnant mothers all smoke at higher levels than the state average.
And the ban -- approved by voters, not lawmakers -- seems to be helping those efforts.
One of Springer's bartenders, a smoker who wouldn't give her name, said she doesn't like what the smoking ban has done to business but thinks that overall it's a good thing.
And, Yarbrough, who was livid when the ban started, has adjusted.
He now goes outside to smoke when he feels the need and even enjoys the camaraderie of fellow smokers he otherwise wouldn't meet in the bar.
"I'm smoking probably half of what I used to," the 58-year-old said, adding he's been smoking since high school. "I'm glad they did it."
Past Month's Most Commented Stories