Sooner Or Later, Everyone Stops Smoking

Add Philadelphia to the list of places to avoid if you must smoke in a restaurant. It's happening all over and most restaurateurs are resigned to the fact that eventually smoking in all restaurants will cease to exist. Some can't wait for the inevitable while others claim the inevitable will put them out of business.

I look forward to the day when we can stop writing about this subject. It's boring already, so why even discuss it? The short answer is that no-smoking laws are being added city-by-city and maybe state-by-state, but you can still smoke in restaurants all over America. In zip code 19127, you can't smoke because that's in Philadelphia. In thirty seconds you can be in zip code 19004 and you can smoke. Something is wrong with this picture because it's basically unfair.

Many owners have told me that smokers spend some twenty percent more in their restaurants than non-smokers. If that's true, the folks with the money can now go elsewhere. No matter what you think or hope for, this is presently an uneven playing field and will remain so until smoking is banned everywhere.

I'm guessing that the overwhelming majority of restaurant owners will be happy to see smoking go away. There are just too many problems associated with it. And how about all the research that suggest your business will actually improve when smoking is eliminated.

I don't smoke so the non-smoking restaurants appeal to me. However, I really don't trust those studies because I do believe that smokers tend to spend considerably more. Some owners will suffer and many will indeed go out of business. The industry will deal with it and we can put all of this behind us, but not until we make it fair to all concerned and ban smoking in all zip codes. There will always be controversial issues in the restaurant business, but it will be a positive step when we can eliminate one of the big ones.

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