Clearing The Air

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Mankato Minnesota's smoking ban is barely on month old....

....and already bars and restaurants there are reporting 30% revenue losses compared to the same period last year when there was no smoking ban.

Frederick, who owns a pair of Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants, told the council that his income for July was down 36.85 percent from the same month last year.

T.J. Finnegan’s owner Ron Doty says he’s trying, but that he can’t absorb many more months of 29.41 percent losses. That’s how much his bar business declined last month when compared to July of 2005.

Doty is sure about one thing, though: The ban hasn’t been a boon for business.“(Ban proponents) led us to believe the only thing we had to worry about was crowd control.”

Read the story here.