No Decline in Food/Liquor Sales Since 2010 Smoking Ban

The statewide smoking ban enacted in 2010 to lower Kansans’ exposure to secondhand smoke does not appear to have had a negative effect on food and liquor sales in Kansas restaurants and bars, according to an analysis featured in a new issue brief from the Kansas Health Institute.

The 2010 Kansas Legislature passed the Kansas Indoor Clean Air Act, which since July 1, 2010, has prohibited smoking in most public areas, including places of employment, restaurants, bars and the lobbies and hallways of apartments and motels. Outdoor smoking close to doorways and windows of nonsmoking buildings also is prohibited.

To examine the smoking ban’s effect on restaurant and bar sales, KHI gathered sales and liquor license information for eight years before and the two years after the statewide ban was implemented. KHI examined information from the Kansas Department of Revenue in three categories:

Sales of food and other non-liquor items subject to state sales tax at full-service restaurants, limited-service eating places, special food services establishments and drinking places.
Sales of liquor subject to the state liquor excise tax, including all liquor-by-the-drink sales in restaurants and bars.
The number of alcoholic beverage licenses issued for drinking establishments, including private clubs, hotels, caterers, microbreweries and bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

“Our analysis indicates that bar and restaurant sales in Kansas did not go down after the statewide smoking ban was enacted,” said Duane Goossen, KHI vice president for fiscal and health policy.

The KHI analysis found that sales of non-liquor items at restaurants and bars increased steadily each year except for a slight drop in fiscal year 2010, but that sales drop occurred before the Kansas Indoor Clean Air Act was enacted. Sales increased again each year after the statewide ban took effect. Similarly, liquor sales also increased each year until fiscal year 2010, then dipped slightly for a year before increasing again in the two years after the statewide ban was enacted.

The 10-year pattern for restaurant and bar sales follows the larger Kansas economic pattern and does not indicate that smoking bans, either local or statewide, had any measureable effect.