Pity poor bar owners.NO BUSINESS,like the bar business.They R getting whooped on!

[BrentCrude]

I know a couple people in the bar business and when they got into it a few years back I told them that they through no fault of their own are cruising for a bruising.Whenever you are Mr.cold shower and put the damper on someone's dreams like that you have to soft peddle your critical thoughts so you just give them a minor hint that it might not be the best thing to do.I have seen the same thing happen where a guy falls in love with a wretched gold digging whore and a close friend tells them they are making an awful mistake and it ends in blows.

Anyway,owning a bar here in Minnesota has become owning a tar baby that nobody wants suddenly.What can go wrong,will go wrong in this Murphy's law of business ownership.They lower the legal limit from .10 to point .08 and now to point .06?maybe.Hell,most women and small guys can't even have 3 or 4 drinks and fall under the limit.Then they do a complete smoking ban.Then the recession-depression hits and no one wants to pay 6X more for a drink in a bar for what you can buy takeout booze and drink somewhere else.Then you had Indian casinos moving in taking away all the expendable recreational dollars.

So now the state sees that bars are in terrible shape so they are exploring the idea of letting them have lottery terminal centrally computerized keno,slot machines and video poker.

Obama and the democrats are going to be putting a tax on cigarettes of 65 cents a pack almost immediately.How much money can you squeeze out of piss poor degenerates these days that have vices may I ask?

So who here is going to spend the day in a bar next weekend to watch the Super Bowl?They would have to have an event the size of a Super Bowl every week to make the bar business worth getting into.

[louisvillekid]

small local bars/pubs/taverns are still going strong around here, always have. It's the big huge party clubs that never seem to last, always closing and then someone else will remodel it and have a new theme, then it fades out and closes again, and it just repeats itself. As for the small bars, most have been owned by the same people for years and years, and if they do get out it's generally cause they are old and already made their money and are ready to relax.
The smoking ban might of hurt some, but most i know of already had/have small outdoor decks and enclosed patio areas, plus some still let the regulars smoke, they just watch out for anyone coming through the door they don't know and put the cig out real quick.

Bars in general seem to make it through any economy, people might be unemployed or whatever, but they still want to get liquored up.

[Panic]

2 things that thrive during times of trouble. Bars and movie theatres. People want to escape reality for a few hours. Bars are still going strong here. The one thing on your list that probably has the biggest impact, is not the recession or smoking ban, or even dropping the b.a.c. level., its the opening of the casino. We dont have those here, but I can imagine if we did, they would do damage to the regular bars.

[pico]

bars are ripoffs. buy cases of liquor from new hamphire and keep inviting people over until you pass out.

[pavyracer]

Obama and the democrats are going to be putting a tax on cigarettes of 65 cents a pack almost immediately

I'm pretty sure this is a very small percentage of how much we spent in Iraq every day to rebuild what we destroyed.

[Casperwaits]

I have worked in the industry for 15 years on almost all facets of the bar/restaurant, and I can say with pretty much certainty, that making money in a bar is NOT easy. Yes, everybody likes to drink, but there are usually bars on every street corner these days, and the prices of liquor licenses, zoning, and other small fees that come along with owning your bar make it difficult just to break even. Couple that with laws that are added seemingly every year that hamper the bar style of behavior, and you are left with many bar owners fighting to stay afloat.

[pavyracer]

Bars in Europe are thriving even with full smoking bans.

[purecarnagge]

Bars in Europe are thriving even with full smoking bans.

That's cuz Alcohol is like religion in Europe... Everyone goes, and everyone drinks

[pavyracer]

Yeah the Mennonites are ruining US with their dry towns.