Sunday 12 July 2015

Smoking ban wrecks businesses, as usual

The year's least surprising news, via the Australian Daily Telegraph...
 
Worried cafe owners hit by new outdoor smoking bans are watching their profits, and their patrons, disappear in a final puff of smoke.

Some report trade has more than halved since the introduction last Monday of laws banning smoking in outdoor dining areas in pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants, or within four metres of them.

Among the hardest hit are shisha bars popular in areas like Parramatta, Lakemba and Burwood, where customers traditionally smoke water pipes, commonly known as hookahs or hubbly bubbly.

“This has buried my whole business,” said [name removed at his request in 2019 - CJS], owner of the [business that is now completely closed - CJS 2019] in Church St, Parramatta.

“Sixty per cent of my customers have walked out the door."

... “My coffee trade is down 30 per cent, and I’m not the only one suffering,” Vivo cafe on George Street owner Angela Vithoulkas, who is also a Sydney City Councillor, said.

“I have lost hundreds of coffee visits. Many regulars didn’t even bother turning up on Monday — they’re gone.”

It's the same story all over the world whether the ban is indoor or out. If smoking bans were good for business, as the anti-smoking liars claim, businesses wouldn't need to be forced by the state to impose them. And 'forced' is very much the word when owners are compelled to act as policemen under threat of penalties that are vastly disproportionate to the 'crime'.

NSW Health inspectors were on patrol across the state last week with the power to issue on-the-spot fines of $300 for individuals and $5,500 for occupiers who ignored the ban.

$5,500 is about £2,600. £2,600 for failing to stop somebody smoking outside your building, FFS.

No doubt the charlatans of 'public health' are already writing a study showing that outdoor smoking bans increase revenues in the hospitality industry and lead to dramatic declines in heart attacks.

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