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IS KICKING SMOKERS IN THE BUTT GOOD FOR BUSINESS?

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Staff Reporter / 2010-03-06 12:03:29

DONNA GEE goes ashtray bashing over one of the most contentious issues affecting Brits in Spain, namely whether smoking should be allowed in bars and restaurants.         
 
My friends Jane and Graham Lilley are considering the likely effects if they were to ban smoking inside their bar/bistro at El Raso. Like other bars in their area, they fear it will hit their business.
 
As a confirmed ashtray-basher, I believe it would have the opposite effect, if not immediately then certainly once fervent non-smokers become aware a fresh-air zone had finally surfaced in the local commercial centre. Let’s face it, how many people – including cigarette addicts – actually ENJOY eating in a smoky environment?
 
OK, our Spanish amigos presumably do, but that’s because finding a Spaniard who doesn’t smoke is like unearthing a married Premier League footballer who can resist playing the field.
 
According to the Office of National Statistics, the percentage of British adults who smoke dropped from 39% in 1980 to 21% in 2007, when the legislation against smoking in public places took effect.
 
I take the never-ending stories of Spain’s sit-on-the-fence legislators bringing in a blanket smoking ban this year with a pinch of salt. The existing law is so woolly and ineffective that it might as well not be there – and I find it difficult to believe that the tobacco-obsessed Spanish would actually observe such a law, anyway.
 
Fag-addicted Brits complain that the UK law is too stringent and I accept that they do have a case of sorts. My philosophy is that if consenting adults wish to impregnate each other’s lungs with a terminal disease in private, that’s their business. Just as long as the rest of us aren’t expected to participate in the suicide attacks on healthy living by inhaling the residue of their habit.
 
The problem at El Raso is that the only way non-smokers can escape a coughing fit is to stay away from the bars. None of the four hostelries on the urbanisation (I exclude exclusive restaurants like Stan and Ollies) has a no-smoking area, even though they all serve food, which means that tobacco addicts are free to blow their fumes into anyone and everyone’s dinner.
 
Claire Tyson, who runs Rayz Bar next door to Ricardo’s, believes a no-smoking policy would decimate her business – particularly in the off season. ‘‘The majority of my customers are smokers,’’ she says, ‘‘and they enjoy the fact that they don’t have to abide by the English laws where cigarettes are concerned. In the summer, they’d have no problem going outside to smoke, but if they had to do it in the winter I think they would just find somewhere else where smoking is allowed.’’
 
Only once has anyone ever asked me in a bar or restaurant if I had any objection to them smoking and that was in  England so long ago that I can’t even remember where it was. Anyway, I made it pretty clear I would throw my knife and fork out of the cot if the young lady concerned lit up, and immediately felt guilty because she had been courteous enough to ask.
 
It’s 30 years since I gave up my own 20-a-day habit after listening to an LP by a hypnotist which I took initially as a joke. Before turning in one night, I sat and listened to this guy’s soothing voice telling me to close my eyes and imagine I was sunbathing in an idyllic scenario on a tropical island beach. I was in paradise, he assured me, except for this ‘’horrible, stinking weed’’ in my hand.  ‘’Get it out of your life,’’ he ordered. ‘’Throw it as far as you can and tell yourself you’ll never touch it again as long as you live.’’
 
I went to bed laughing to myself, with no real intention of giving up. Yet when I got out of bed the next morning, I told myself, ‘‘I’m not going to smoke today’’. And from that day to this, the thought of taking even a single drag on a ciggy has revolted me ever increasingly.
 
Even more bizarrely, a few weeks later my late mother-in-law, who had been a lifelong smoker, listened to the same LP one evening. She never smoked again until the day she died.
 
So where can we get hold of this record, I hear hordes of would-be ex-smokers asking. The answer is I don’t know. I always thought the hypnotist’s name was Edwin Starr, but since the only Edwin Starr on the internet appears to be the late soul singer, I guess that time has distorted my memory. If anyone out there can enlighten Leader readers on the hypnotist’s identity, and where they might still hear that LP, then please get in touch. You could make an awful lot of would-be quitters very happy.
 
Anyway, back to El Raso and Jane and Graham’s honourable intentions at Ricardo’s. While they might lose some of the casual customers who prop up the bar with a beer in one hand and a fag in the other, would this not be more than balanced by an influx of those who would at last know they could eat in a smoke-free environment?
 
John Latham and Ken Brewster, who run the classy, Hollywood-themed  Oscars café bar in Quesada, certainly have no regrets after going smoke-free when they took over the old Casi Casi premises a couple of  years ago.
 
‘’We did lose a few people who used to come in just for a drink and a smoke,’’ they tell me. ‘’But that has been more than balanced by a much cleaner atmosphere both for our diners and ourselves. We also have lots of people coming in now who would not have dreamt of eating here when smoking was allowed.’’
 
It’s easy to see why. With only 20 inside covers for diners, the addition of a row of beer-swilling smokers at the bar could only have a negative effect on the food side of the business.
 
It’s a bit of a Catch 22 situation really. Allow smoking and ostracise your non-smoking diners; ban it and risk losing your regular drinkers. To mix the cocktail even more at Ricardo’s, it’s pure conjecture whether sufficient non-smokers would move in to replace the alienated smokers – and whether a cigarette-free environment would be the kiss of death for Jane and Graham’s business.
 
What do YOU think? Write and  tell The Leader or, if you prefer, email me at Donna773@aol.com
 
PS. Isn’t it remarkable that the people who smoke the most often seem to be those who look as if they can least afford it? But let’s not go there just now - I’ve kicked smokers in the butt enough for one week.