It seems that England’s newly smoke-free pubs are so popular that fewer people are going to them (at least for now). The London Times has details:
Shares in JD Wetherspoon fell 6 per cent today after the high-street pubs group revealed the first signs that the smoking ban in England and Wales is hitting business. Like-for-like growth across the group slumped to 1.1 per cent in August, after an initial spurt in July, when sales rose 5.3 per cent…Wetherspoon put the initial leap in sales during July down a “novelty factor”. Mr Hutson said: “It’s sort of what happened in Scotland. Initially there were strong sales because everyone wants to see what it’s like in a pub without smoking. Then sales fell back before eventually recovering again.
Puritans: bad for freedom, and bad for business. Now, how is that Huckabee campaign going?