Restaurant Press Releases

Smoking Bans and Restaurant Sales Risks

CONTACT:
Paul McIntyre or
Anne Naughton
(916) 780-0226

With smoking having been long intertwined with the American dining-out experience, the trend to ban smoking in restaurants has led many in the industry to conclude that a loss in sales will certainly result. Yet these fears, flamed by the tobacco industry, have never come to fruition.

Restaurateurs believe that providing a comfortable environment for their customers is key to the success of their business and many feel that allowing smoking is an essential part of that comfort. They believe that, deprived of the opportunity to smoke with their meal, diners will instead eat at home or find some other food service venue where smoking and dining are allowed together.

Does banning smoking in restaurants present an economic risk? In areas where smoking bans are already in place do people eat out less often, and spend less money in restaurants? If there is no evidence of economic loss in areas where smoking is banned, why do such worries persist?

In California, where the nation's strictest smoking ban has been in effect since 1995, restaurant sales did not suffer for the industry as a whole or on a per-unit basis. The smoking ban in bars, which kicked in three years later, did not hurt sales either. When restaurant sales are compared with other retail sectors in California, and other states and cities with such bans, have held up. Half as many people smoke today as did 40 years ago, with the majority of people, including many smokers themselves, now embracing smoke-free public places.

Some state's restaurateurs claim California comparisons are useless because in their own state, people could walk across the street to another state where smoking is not banned and choose to dine there instead.

But in key tourist areas like California's Lake Tahoe, which shares a literal walk-across-the street border with ban-free Nevada, patrons could, but have chosen not to abandon California restaurants. California-side Lake Tahoe restaurants have successfully dealt with the issue of having to step outside to smoke in cold weather too.

People nationwide have already learned to adapt to smoking bans. Airlines serving Kentucky and Nevada did not lose revenue when smoking was banned on air travel in the United States a decade ago.

The evidence is in. Banning smoking in restaurants does not hurt business.