Jul. 28, 2003 - Lotawata Creek, a Fairview Heights restaurant, used to buy 10 cases of matchbooks with its logo about every five months or so, said Ken Archer, the restaurant's owner. 

But now, the restaurant has 10 cases of logo matchbooks lying around, each of which costs about $75 and holds 5,000 matchbooks. Combined, the cases hold about 50,000 matchbooks. 

With its supply, the restaurant has stopped ordering matchbooks since last ordering them at least 18 months ago. And Archer said it will probably take a while to get rid of the supply. 

"Basically I've got a 10-year supply now instead of a five-month supply," Archer said, adding that buying so many matchbooks was a mistake. "Most people have got lighters and stuff, anyway." 

The restaurant now only gives the matchbooks to customers who ask for them. But it used to have the matchbooks readily available for customers in a bowl at the entrance of the restaurant, Archer said. 

"We just found they were getting kind of wasted, so we changed the way we approached it," Archer said. 

Across the metro-east and the nation, fewer and fewer restaurants and bars are using logo matchbooks as a way of advertising. Many simply offer plain matchbooks with no advertising for their smoking customers. 

"I think you'll find that most places have eliminated matchbooks," said John Steinlage, general manager of Maxwell's in Belleville. "They're just not going to exist any more." 

Steinlage said his restaurant does order matchbooks, but they don't have any advertising. He said more and more people have quit smoking, dramatically reducing the demand for matchbooks. 

"If we give out one matchbook a week, that's a lot," he said. 

Matchbooks have become increasingly difficult to get, said Sherry Lutman, owner of Sharky's Restaurant, Sports Bar and Billiards in Maryville. Her establishment has plain white matchbooks for customers who like to smoke. 

"They have to be special ordered in, and it usually takes quite a bit of time," Lutman said. "The insurance since Sept. 11 is astronomical. It's the insurance -- none of the distributors will stock them in their warehouses anymore." 

The move away from matchbooks is the latest in a series of strikes that matchmakers have faced over the years. 

During its peak between 1972 and 1975, the matchmaking industry -- then with more than a dozen companies -- brought in probably $100 million to $200 million in annual sales, said Mark Bean, president of the match division at D.D. Bean & Sons Co. in Jaffrey, N.H. Then the sudden popularity of cigarette lighters led the Zippos and Bics of the world to acquire 90 percent of what Bean calls the "ignition market." 

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, despite a public-relations campaign by the short-lived American Match Council, match sales have continued to flicker, particularly since 44.3 million people have quit smoking, according to the American Legacy Foundation. Now the industry sees only about $50 million in annual sales, Bean estimates. "We're not the industry we used to be by a long shot," he said. "But we're still viable." 

Doug Lamb, chief operating officer at Atlas Match, of Euless, Texas, one of two remaining domestic producers of restaurant-style match products, thinks people will want matchbooks even if they don't smoke because "they're still useful outside of the restaurant." Closely held Atlantis Match Co. of Frankfort, Ill., is the other remaining U.S. producer. 

Ken Fischer, owner of Fischer's Restaurant in Belleville, said his restaurant hasn't been using matches for about four years. He said there isn't much demand for matches because there isn't much smoking. In addition, Fischer said his restaurant does not pass out coasters or any other form of take-home advertising. 

"I don't think there's that much value," he said, adding his restaurant benefits more from print advertising. 

David Abbott, a manager at Shenanigan's Bar and Grill in Edwardsville, said his restaurant doesn't order logo matchbooks. Instead, Abbott said, the bank the restaurant has an account with supplies logo matchbooks to the restaurant, as does the company that stocks the cigarette vending machine at Shenanigans. Abbott said Shenanigan's advertises mainly in newspapers, but occasionally prints calendars with promotional coupons on them. 

"We don't have that big a call for matches, so why pay for them when people that we do business with are supplying them for us?" he said. "Everybody's on this no-smoking kick, and they're getting banned everywhere, so why spend the money on the advertising?" 

In addition, Abbott said because smoking is not as culturally accepted as it used to be, advertising on matchbooks might hurt a restaurant or bar, and could bring accusations that the establishment is "promoting smoking." 

"Why spend the money on something people are frowning on and they're pushing down into the corner somewhere, and saying this is not acceptable anymore?" he asked. "In the long run, if that's the way it's going to go, I think that actually if you put your name on a matchbook, that might damage your business because smoking is so outdated or culturally unaccepted now." 

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(c) 2003, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.