Smoking Venue And Hoster

[marklwood]

Originally Posted by billyo

i kinda dis-agree with you bout the most behave people are non smokers, i play in a non smoker right now and i have a few that are the the most abnoxious people i've ever seen, they're non smokers and most of the time they will order a drink and sat there all night,waiting for their turn but my smoker people will order drinks as long as they still have packs of smokes in them..and they do go outside and smoke..but anyway pls. don't take it the wrong way, this is just my opinion and for the sake of conversation..

You are not just whistlin' Dixie.

I have been in the service business (rest/bar) for the last 30 years. One of those gigs was a 10 year stint as a manager for Red Lobster. As a corporation, General Mills restaurant division was concerned about the growing nonsmoking lobby even way back then. When I was in Orlando, for training they were mining data from the sales records over a 5 year period. Since the smoking/nonsmoking sections are assigned by table number, they could get sales data separated by smoking preference. This was important to them because it could mean millions of dollars in sales every year. They either wanted to fight the legislation, or jump ahead of the market and make their restaurants nonsmoking ahead of the curve.

The gist of the results were that smokers not only drink more alcohol, they also ate more appetizers and desserts. I would say that bad habits do not stand alone I was not there for the final conclusions as I resigned shortly thereafter. What I do know is that they didn't open any nonsmoking restaurants if they weren't forced to. So I would surmise that the data supported the initial conclusions.

The winds of change are there though. I think that at some point people will realize that smoking is bad for you On the business side, the scale is still leaning toward the smoking side if it is allowed by law. Maybe, some day, it will tip the other way. I can see a lot of benefits to being nonsmoking when it comes to maintenance and such, but for now, I just don't see it as a good business decision.

What I tell the zealots now is I would gladly put up a 20% stake in a nonsmoking venue in this market. There is a building that would be perfect right across the street. If you REALLY believe this is the way to go, you wouldn't mind putting up the other 80% because you would make a killing. I will be your silent partner and adviser on running the business. I will provide the exact same experience you would get in my place and we will see which one folds first.

Funny thing is, I haven't had any takers yet.