Buggs Bar Story

Buggs Bar
925 North Concord
South Saint Paul, MN 55075
651-455-2195
www.myspace.com/buggsbar
To Whom It May Concern:
I’m writing to express how our business has been affected since the smoking ban took place. Please let me give you a brief history of the saloon. My Father bought the bar 22 years ago, back then it wasn’t the nicest bar around. I remember growing up my Father would get up at 5 a.m. go and janitor at the bar, come home and pick me up for school, go back to the bar and bartend till I got out of school, pick me up, go home take a nap, eat dinner and bartend till 1 a.m. This is the hard work my Father put into the business. He has always thought that it would get passed down to me and Brother who is currently in Kuwait. The bar is completely different from 22 years ago, we are a friendly neighborhood saloon with pool tables, dart machines and we only serve pizza for food. We are very similar to a “Cheers”.
Our daytime bartender has been there for 10 years; she is 65 years old single woman and has been bartending for 30 years. She relies on her tips for her phone bill, rent and food. We had to cut her hours because lack of business. Our other bartender is a single Mom of 2 little girls and while her hours are still the same, her tips have dropped $150.00 per week. I am a Mother of a 17 month old girl, and my tips have dropped $100.00 per week. I count on my tips to buy diapers, food, clothes and my mortgage. We have all been affected by the ban. We have had to open later, cut hours and if we aren’t busy at night, we have to close. Our business has gone down by a third since the ban took affect. We also have charitable gambling in our bar. The organization is the Vietnam Vets of America. They usually every year give away 3 scholarships to students in the area and they have had to cut back to only 2 now. Our alcohol and liquor sales have dramatically decreased. Our sales tax is at the lowest it’s ever been. Our charitable gambling isn’t donating as much anymore. This has really hurt our business and we hope that you can see that the ban has affected so many people and it’s hard. We hope that you will consider this letter in your vote.
Thank you,
Crystal Bentson (Buggs Bar Manager)