Smoking ban offers mixed results

From The Daily Journal

Some stopped coming. Some started coming back. Others come, but every few hours they go outside to smoke a cigarette.

The statewide smoking ban on indoor businesses began last year on April 15, and local business owners are finding out the actual results associated with it.

Don Bernardi, owner of Bernardi's on East Wheat Road, said the ban stinks.

"It's hurt all of the bars," he said, blaming the ban for $60,000 in lost revenue over the past year. "Now after they work they just stop off at a liquor store, buy a six-pack and go home."

The bar has a cigarette machine. Bernardi's customers can buy them, but they can't smoke them.

"People will smoke no matter what," he said. "The customers are not happy. When someone comes in they want to sit back and have a cigarette."

Loyle Lanes on South Delsea Drive built a wooden deck with a cover for its smoking customers.

General Manager Michael Loyle said business has picked up during the day.

When the smoke disappeared, it left a more family friendly atmosphere.

Loyle is president of the Bowling Proprietors Association of South Jersey, which hired a lobbyist to oppose the state bill. Loyle said the ban has lit a fire with some owners, especially those who compete with establishments in Pennsylvania that don't have a ban.

But Rick Kott, 37, of Millville appreciates the smoking area.

"I can smoke outside, and the wood of the deck is a lot better on the shoes," he said.

At the Buena Tavern on Route 40 in Buena Vista, the customers aren't huffing and puffing about the ban, according to owner Sunday Simons.

Business has doubled in the past year, and Simons attributes a lot of that to the ban.

"All the people who don't smoke now come in," she said. "It's great now. I didn't realize how many people stopped coming in because it smelled so bad."

Matthew A. Walker contributed to this story.