As a Smoker, Think You are Vilified? Try being a Professional Tobacconist

[admin]

Bull & Bear in St. Charles IL is in a battle for the life of their business.
Here's the latest reporting from PipesMagazine.com ... A Bunch of Bull at Bull & Bear in St. Charles IL

 

[admin]

Btw, please place your comments on the article as well as the forums.

 

[mekkohotvle]

Great article. I live in Oklahoma and the tribes can sell tobacco products tax-free but over the last few years, the state has been pushing to make tribes tax the tobacco and trying to stop shipments from coming in. Last year alone, the state raided a truck and stated the products didn't have the correct tax stamp and couldn't be sold in stores because it wasn't on their list.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Good article. Pretty rediculous the claims the "Hair Salon" is making. More than likely customers and other stylists are complaining about the co-workers who are walking back in from the cigarette break. As we all know cigarettes smell totally different than pipe tobacco or cigars and if it's in the lease agreement that they're allowed to have smoking in the lounge then nobody really has any grounds to complain regardless. Hope everything works out well for the shop owners.

 

[riptide]

That just blows. If I was them I would complain about the toxic chemicals and smell coming out of the salon. Personal rights are personal rights. We as a country have let the anti's take away our rights little by little and we just bend over and take it. I am glade to see that the shop is not going to take it laying down. Even here The biggest shop in town had to buy there own building just to stay in business.

 

[papipeguy]

As it so happens, our B&M is located right between a hair salon and a cosmetic shop. Not only are there no complaints but the salon offers discounts to the guys who frequent the B&M. As for the cosmetic business, many if the husbands who drive their wives there come in a kill time with a smoke rather than wander around lady-land. Win-win as far as I can see.

So, yeah its about the money.

 

[misterrogers]

B&B should do the exact same thing. You claim that "unpleasant odors" are coming from the Hair Salon, thus "makes it unsanitary" and is "violating the lease" of the hair salon. Claim "one gentleman's coat smelled so bad that we thought it was hung next to a gentleman who goes to the salon."

 

[cacooper]

Greetings all,
Being a former tobacco shop owner (Village Smoke Shop, Scottsdale, AZ - closed it in '05 after a 10 year run), I can tell you that complaints from anti's were constant. Smoke odors, whether real or imaginary, were always a problem. In this day and age, shops located in a strip malls, with adjoining walls, are becoming a thing of the past, just like tobacco shops in enclosed shopping malls. All gone.
Landlords will not renew leases, or rent to you in the first place. I've thought of opening another store here in CO, but every landlord I've talked to will not lease to any tobacco business that allows smoking on THEIR premises.
A stand-alone building is the ONLY (albeit expensive) option now. I'm afraid the folks at the Bull & Bear are ultimately going to have to move to their own, separate building. Examples are McCranie's, Iwan Reis, and Stag Tobacconist here in CO Springs. All OWN stand-alone structures, and receive zero complaints from anyone. They OWN their buildings, with controlled overhead costs, no yearly rent increases, and best of all, no eviction threats.
The tobacco business is difficult, with so many enemies coming at you from every direction. From the government trying to regulate and tax you out of existence, landlords trying to evict you, to passerby's complaining about the smell. It's really a shame that it's come to this, but such is the world today.
I miss the business very much, but I don't miss the harassment and headaches.
Where there's a will, there's a way. I wish the Bull & Bear good luck. I feel your pain.
CACooper

 

[jcsoldit]

The local tobacco shop that I frequent has had similar problems with one of their two neighbors. The shop owner has went to great expense to hire an expert in air and smoke infiltration to seal up the common walls and attic of the shop and then to run tests to prove nothing is penetrating from one store to the other. Still the ladies working in the neighboring candy store complain that they could still smell the tobacco smoke so they have now upgraded their air filtering system as well. The funny thing is the tobacco shop sets between a candy store and an ice-cream shop and only the one neighbor has ever complained. My guess is if they’re still smell anything it is coming from their back door and is being created by all of the many different shop employees forced to take their smoke breaks out behind the shops. None of us smoke shop patrons frequent the candy store anymore out of protest and fear that if they smell smoke on us it will be blamed on the smoke shop.

 

[thekiltedchaplain]

Lord help, there is plenty in this world that needs to be addressed and complained about, and what do these folks choose? A tobacco store? Really, thats what you want to change about the world? Good luck to all the B&M's out there as this collective epidemic of stupidity continues.

 

[cyndi]

I'm of the firm opinion that everyone who whines publicly should be forced to be a foster parent. That'll give em something to do (and something real to worry about.) Bunch of spoiled brats, the lot of them.

 

[admin]

I feel like listing all the names of people who posted here, but not on the article, completely ignoring my second post, but you know who you are ... or do you?

 

[cyndi]

Kevin, if we're bad twice do we get a check mark next to our name?

 

[riptide]

Stag Tobacconist here in CO Springs.My Favorite shop.

 

[admin]

Want to know what happened on this?
See the update: http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-news/a-bunch-of-bull-at-bull-bear-in-st-charles-il/

 

[bootlegbonvivant]

Awesome news! Glad to hear there is some common sense up there.

 

[krgulick]

I am with the majority here in that the hair salon is probably a worse offender that the B&B in having “toxic fumes” emanating from the store. I am glad to hear that at least one judge has some sense left and sided with the B&B.

 

[kcvet67]

Congratulations Zita! We owe a lot to people like you who are on the front line in the battle for our rights. It's encouraging to see that there's a LITTLE sanity left in the world.

 

[baronsamedi]

My problem was I couldn't post without using language that would have the sailors on the board taking notes. Since a judge has ruled in favor of the shop I can happily post.