Has the Smoking Ban Changed You? We Doubt It.

Mike Paulus |

Last week, the Leader-Telegram ran a big ol' story on Eau Claire’s smoking ban – “six months later” – which focused heavily on economic issues. I imagine it’s been pretty hard to pick out a truly direct link between the ban and poor business over the past six months since the economy’s been so annoyingly bad, fuzzing up the picture. But the L-T had this to say:

  • According to figures provided by the Eau Claire City-County Tavern League, 16 city taverns saw a combined $367,000 business loss during July, August and September - the first three months the ban was in place - compared with revenues for that same time the previous year.

We were talking around the office about the whole thing, and I thought it would have been interesting to gauge bar-going habits of the ban’s proponents – the vocal folks on city council and in the community – before the ban and now, just to see if they really are getting out to the bars more, as they claimed they would.

Personally, I had opposed the ban because I didn’t think the city should be telling a business what it can or can’t do when it comes to smoking, but I have to say  … I really enjoy the lack of smoke. However! In all honesty, I haven’t been out to the bars any more or less than before the ban.

Someone at the office brought up a good point – it takes more than six months to make that kind of lifestyle change. If you’ve been a life-long avoider of smoke, you’ve developed some hardcore routines that do not take you into bars. Just because people have said they’d like a smoke-free atmosphere, it’s not like all these people have been clamoring at the doorsteps of area bars, waiting for the smoke to clear.

Unfortunately, by the time those ingrained routines have a real chance to change, it seems like the economic downturn will have crushed a lot of local taverns – places that would have done better sans-ban.