Waffle House's income off at least 15%
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/0120N02.html
Thursday, 20 January 2000
Sergey Shayevich,
The Arizona Daily Star
Wayne Beler, who's been a regular for 18 years, can smoke his pipe again at the Waffle House
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Campagne shows her amusement at a ``$1 million bill'' left with a tip.
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Photos by Chris Richards,
The Arizona Daily Star
Server Deanna Campagne says she lost about $160 a week in tips at the Waffle House during the smoking ban
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By Sara Hammond
The Arizona Daily Star
Smoking is back at the Waffle House on West Grant Road, but the business and tips haven't followed.
Waffle House was smoke-free form the time a city ban on restaurant smoking began Oct. 1 until the cafe won an exemption on Jan. 13.
Although a sign out front notes smoking is again permitted, server Deanna Campagne said many regular customers still haven't come back for coffee, meals and socializing.
Campagne, who has worked at Waffle House since 1997, said her weekly tips dropped from about $300 to $140 during the smoking ban. A grill operator said he lost about $20 every two days in bonus money.
Exemptions sought
Five Tucson restaurants have asked to be exempted from the city's smoking ban, claiming at least a 15 percent drop in business in October and November:
* Waffle House, 1380 W. Grant Road - exemption granted on Jan. 13.
* Denny's, 3655 E. Speedway.
* Denny's, 6910 E. Tanque Verde Road.
* Bob Dobbs, 2501 E. Sixth St.
* Texas T-Bone, 8981 E. Tanque Verde.
Two Cory's Cafe locations withdrew their requests for exemptions.
``The real criminal act about this whole thing is what they've done to these folks and their incomes,'' said Waffle House owner Junior Mathis of workers at his place and others. Mathis employs 120 people at his five locations in Pima and Pinal counties.
Mathis said it would have been impossible to configure the long rectangular building to provide an enclosed non-smoking section, the only other way restaurants can avoid the ban. The grill and food preparation area runs along the whole length of the building's west side, and servers speak orders to the grill operators. A remodeling job would cost about $90,000, he said, a sum he is unwilling to borrow and put into a 42-seat enterprise that may not provide a return.
Mathis owns three Waffle Houses within Tucson city limits, one in Marana and one in Eloy. He won permission last week to let patrons light up at the Grant Road restaurant because he successfully demonstrated to city officials that business at his cafe near Interstate 10 had dropped at least 15 percent.
The no-smoking ordinance that went into effect Oct. 1 included a provision that restaurants could seek an exemption from the law if they could prove that their sales tax revenues for October and November of 1999 were at least 15 percent less than the same two months a year earlier. Five restaurants had applied for an exemption by the Jan. 4 deadline.
Mathis said his figures showed a 16.2 percent tax revenue decline; the city accepted a 15 percent amount in granting the exemption last week.
He started seeing the decline seven days into the ban. He computes sales daily to be able to match trends compared to the same day the previous year.
Mathis said he did not seek an exemption for his restaurant at West Starr Pass Boulevard and the interstate because he would have made comparisons between this year and last year, when construction along the freeway frontage road drastically cut business for nearly a year. Between the construction and smoking ban, revenues there have declined 20 percent to 22 percent in the past several years, he said.
Revenues at Mathis' Waffle House at East Benson Highway and South Park Avenue dropped by 14.5 percent during the first two months of the smoking ban.
``It doesn't qualify, but how many dollars is that?'' he said.
Mathis said that if he annualized the lost revenue at his three city locations, it would total $665,000. He acknowledged that his other stores are doing well.
Mathis said he is building a new Waffle House at South Palo Verde and East Irvington roads and plans another at Cortaro Road near the interstate. He decided not to build a new store in the city at South Tucson Boulevard and East Valencia Road because of the smoking ban.
``I am being forced to reconsider even staying in Tucson,'' said Mathis, who worked at Waffle House corporate headquarters in Atlanta before deciding to buy his own restaurants in 1995.
Carl Blake and two companions had breakfast at Waffle House Tuesday. They weren't regular patrons of the restaurant before, he said, but they will stop in now that they can have a cigarette after their meals.
``It's hard to find a restaurant where you can smoke after you eat. I enjoy it,'' Blake said.
Shyla Bleich said the construction trio used to ``drive 15 miles out of the way just to go to a smoking restaurant.''
Wayne Beler was puffing on his pipe and drinking a cup of coffee at Waffle House. Beler said the restaurant is about a mile from his home and a convenient stop on the way to walk his dogs along the Santa Cruz River. The dogs wait for him behind the restaurant while he's smoking and drinking coffee inside.
Beler said he stopped at Waffle House during the time smoking was prohibited, but not as much as he had done previously, and he also patronized other restaurants that have separate smoking areas. He found it an inconvenience to smoke outdoors at Waffle House.
``I prefer to sit inside and lean against the wall,'' he said from his corner counter seat.
Rob LaMaster, executive director of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the Arizona Restaurant Association, said his trade group plans to help members comply with the city law while collecting data to determine how restaurants have been affected.
LaMaster said the association doesn't think using overall sales tax revenues is a good indicator for negative impact. The restaurant industry grew at a 6 percent rate last year, and the same growth rate is projected for 2000.
LaMaster said his group would like to see restaurants voluntarily adopt non-smoking policies and post the smoking status on the door so patrons can make ``informed decisions'' about where to dine.
``We are not in favor of all restaurants having smoking. They should make decisions based on their patrons,'' LaMaster said.
Meanwhile, Mathis, who lives in Oro Valley, said he and a group of 88 or 89 restaurateurs have formed a loose amalgamation and are getting more politically active by encouraging their employees and customers to register to vote. That group employs about 1,400 people.
``These guys have cost me,'' he said of the Tucson City Council members who approved the smoking ban.
``I've paid a very high tuition for the lesson,'' he said.
``I'm going to be actively involved as long as I'm in Tucson.''
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