Smoke-free campaign pitches economics

Fifteen years ago, Don Thayer decided

that his Heidi's Restaurant location in

South Lake Tahoe would be entirely nonsmoking.

"My competitors said it was the best

thing we ever could have done from them,"

Thayer recalled last week. "It cost us a 10

percent decline in business."

But times change, and Thayer these days

is among the restaurant owners who are

involved in the "Clean Cuisine" program

that promotes restaurants that don't allow

smoking.

The marketing push, which kicked off

late last month, focuses heavily on the

health risks of second-hand smoke.

But backers also are talking with restaurant

owners about the financial benefits that

accrue to establishments that forbid smoking.

It's an argument that meets some skepticism

in the business.

"It's the revenue end they're concerned

about," acknowledged Mike Johnson, an

outreach manager at St. Mary's Health

System and a member of the Washoe

County Tobacco Prevention Coalition.

As he talks with restaurant owners,

Johnson said, they understand how a ban

on smoking can reduce their operating

costs.

Burned tables, linens and carpets all are

smoking-related expenses. So are the needs

to paint and clean draperies more often.

And restaurant owners understand the hassles

involved with managing separate waiting

lists for smoking and non-smoking sections

of their establishments.

Sometimes, the costs are more subtle,

Johnson said. Smokers, for instance, tend

to linger a little longer after dinner. That

might reduce the number of turns during a

busy dinner hour.

It's far more difficult, however, to track

whether a restaurant will lose customers if it

doesn't allow smoking.

"A lot of that will be influenced by the

nature of the establishment," Johnson said.

A coffee shop at which regulars gather for a

cup of java and a smoke with their morning

newspaper, for instance, probably would

face significant resistance from customers if

it banned smoking.

It's a particularly difficult sale, the tobacco

coalition has found, because the research

has focused on places such as California

where smoking has been banned at all

establishments a move that means that

no restaurant gains a competitive advantage.

Even so, Johnson notes that 68 percent

of Americans these days don't smoke a

figure that means that restaurant owners

have two nonsmoking customers for every

smoker.

Still, the experience of Thayer shows

that the question isn't always easy for

restaurant owners.

Thayer owns the City Cafe and Bakery

in Carson City and is owner and president

of the Heidi's group of restaurants in Reno,

Carson City and South Lake Tahoe.

Banning smoking at City Cafe and

Bakery wasn't difficult, Thayer said.

"Bread will absorb anything the air

including smoke. For us, it was a simple

decision for the integrity of the product."

The verdict about smoking has been a

split decision at the Heidi's locations.

The South Lake Tahoe location

where competitors picked off Thayer's customers

in the 1980s now is surrounded

by nonsmoking restaurants after California

banned all smoking in all public places.

The Carson City location, too, is completely

nonsmoking, in part because the

building doesn't allow for easy separation of

smokers and nonsmokers.

Employees of that restaurant, Thayer

said, have joined nonsmoking customers in

welcoming the change.

"You come home from work smelling

like an ashtray," he said.

The company's restaurants in Reno,

however, continue to maintain well-separated

smoking and nonsmoking sections.

Even so, Thayer said, he sees a significant

base of customers willing to seek out

restaurants that ban smoking entirely.

The Clean Cuisine campaign

The Clean Cuisine program, which seeks to

increase consumers' awareness of restaurants

that are entirely smoke-free, is based on print,

broadcast and direct-mail advertising.

The ads, in turn, seek to drive consumers to a

website www.NoTobaccoNevada.com

where they can find the names of restaurants

that don't allow smoking.

For participating restaurants, the campaign

involves Clean Cuisine door decals, logos for

use in the restaurants' own advertising and stickers

that servers can place on check folders.

The campaign was devised by KPS3, a Reno

advertising and marketing agency, for the

Washoe County Tobacco Prevention Coalition.

Members of the coalition are Saint Mary's

Health Network, Washoe County Health

Department, American Lung Association,

American Cancer Society and Health Insight.