Smoking ban exemption’s end could doom cigar business

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The smoking ban that went into force in St. Louis in 2011 included a five-year exemption for the Charles P. Stanley Cigar Company and Lounge. With the exemption expiring at the end of the year, Stanley worries that his business won’t survive. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1RJrsj0 ) reports that the […]




ST. LOUIS (AP) – The smoking ban that went into force in St. Louis in 2011 included a five-year exemption for the Charles P. Stanley Cigar Company and Lounge. With the exemption expiring at the end of the year, Stanley worries that his business won’t survive.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1RJrsj0 ) reports that the city seems unlikely to extend exemptions for the cigar company and a few other businesses.

Mayor Francis Slay’s chief of staff, Mary Ellen Ponder, says Slay does not support extending the exemptions.

Stanley hopes the city will reconsider for a business that got its start in 1876, when Stanley’s great-grandfather began selling cigars. Customers reportedly included President Ulysses S. Grant.

It went out of business in 1935 but Stanley and other relatives resurrected the name in 2011.


Source: http://www.ktrs.com