Karaoke Forums

It's been roughly nine years since the smoking ban took affect here and the bars have yet to fully recover. What happened is that smokers (ie 90% of the customers) stayed away in droves immediately after the ban came into effect. It took about 6 months to a year to get them back, but even so, things have drastically changed.
They used to come out fairly early, around 9:00 or 10:00 pm. But the ban taught people that not only were they free to smoke inside at home, but also that if they stayed there and drank, it was much cheaper!
So now, what people do is "tune up" at home first and then they don't come out until 10:30 (rare), 11:00 (more likely), or even sometimes not until 12:00. The industry has never recovered and I doubt it ever will.

Wish I knew about that when I lived down there!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

[quote="TroyVnd27"]Lon, you might be right when it comes to how things work in WA, but it's a much different story in MI. We only have 6 decent months out of the year, so when the 3 months of summer come along, most of the bars are dead. Most folks do things outdoors, take vacations, or attend one of the many festivals around here. The off months (Oct-Apr) used to be our busiest time, but now they're down substantially. The non-smokers did not flock to the bars to replace the smokers, although there are a few. Statistically speaking, the average drinker is likely to be a smoker, and the average gambler is also likely to be a smoker. I bring up gambler because of our Club games, like Keno, which have surpassed pool tables, juke boxes and other games COMBINED as the biggest non-food/drink source of revenue. The State had reported a decline of 30-40% in Club Games 6 months after the smoking ban was enacted, but I cannot tell you how much they are down today because they started offering these games at gas stations & other retailers, where before the smoking ban, they were only available at bars.



Iowa - I personally quit smoking on December 14th 2007. The following July smoking was banned indoors in the state. Followed the same pattern Lonnie talked about, bars lost some business, (of course the whole time since then the variable of the economy) but people got used to it and moved on.

However,,,,,,, I work in the only bar in the state of Iowa (that I know of) that you can smoke in. I never hosted before the ban so I didn't know what it was like until I landed this gig. My trailer smells like cigarettes when I open it up following a gig there. Overall it's not bad, good ventilation so it's not choking bad in there. Winter coming along, I expect more business where I am as the other bars in the small town don't have indoor smoking.

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

Well we got great news about a month ago in my part of the world (Halifax), a 25 BILLION, 30 year, naval/coast guard ship building contract. Things should start in the spring 2012, so it will be interesting around here for bars and businesses in general.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Wow, be sending my resume!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

You and thousands and thousands of others. They said not to send resumes yet but within 24 hrs they received 5,000 of the suckers. Send to Irving shipbuilding.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I'm sure because of your close proximity, yours was one of the first to be there. They're going to need security on the building sites.

Good luck.

But Rip, you don't speak Canuck, or do you?.....

"Shakes head",,

Why do I bother?

I have a permanent resident card! I'll use sign language!

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KingBing Entertainment C'mon Up! I have a song for you!!! [font=MS Sans Serif][/font]

As usual Chip, you're wrong on your assumptions.

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You can be strange but not a stranger