Richards also said his data shows that smokers aren’t choosing to drink at home, if a lack of change in liquor store sales is any indication.

Mankato’s other beer distributor declined to comment for this story except to reply that the exemptions tell the story.

A large liquor distributor in the area, St.Paul-based Griggs, Cooper & Co., reported that the ban was hurting their Mankato clients, but didn’t have exact figures.

Soren Sorensen is the company’s district manager for southern Minnesota and said his clients blame recent sales losses on the smoking ban.

A notable exception

While some bar owners talk about 20 or 30 percent losses, Chris Rugowski scoffs at the notion that the ban is keeping customers out of his bar, The Underground.

His September business was up almost 19 percent compared to last year. Rugowski credits the completion of a nearby parking ramp for the success, but doesn’t think he would have done better without the ban.

He said that young smokers aren’t offended at the ban because they’ve been lighting up outside all their lives — at school, work, home. Smoking bans are “inevitable,” Rugowski said, as smaller cities such as Mankato “catch up” to the likes of New York City and the dozen or so states with bans.

Clubs hurt more

Service clubs appear to be hurting the most, as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Moose Lodge all reported declines of 30 percent or more.

The American Legion’s Homer said he’s lost half his business, including about $15,000 in gambling revenue in one month.

“If we don’t have that money, we’re not going to be able to give to those special programs that have been the cornerstone of the service clubs,” Homer said. “When people come in and ask for donations to a charity event, we can’t give it.”

But the VFW’s newly elected commander-in-chief, Gary Kurpius, has a different opinion.

“We’re kind of stuck in the rut of the ’60s and ’70s,” said Kurpius, a native of the northern Minnesota town of Babbitt. Young people don’t want to bring their families to smoky clubs, Kurpius suggested.

And he stresses that his thoughts are only that — suggestions meant to “plant some seeds” of new thinking designed to make the VFW relevant to younger veterans.