This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
PROVO - On his first day running a beer-and-cigarette-free store, Paul Ream said he has heard only one complaint, but lots of praise.
"The complaint was that I shouldn't force my values on others," Ream, owner of Ream's Family Foods, said Friday. But he said he has received a surprising amount of praise for his action.
Customers at the Provo grocery store said they didn't mind that there was no beer on the shelves or cigarettes behind the courtesy desk.
In fact, some said they came to the store Friday for that reason.
"When I saw it in the paper, I said we're going to Ream's," said Nina Childs of Provo, who was shopping with her husband, Ardeen.
Ream decided to stop stocking beer and cigarettes after his 9-year-old daughter, Shyanne, asked him why he sold "drugs" in his store. Shyanne Ream posed the question after taking a D.A.R.E. class in school that teaches students to not use drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
Ream said the question caused him to think whether selling such items was in keeping with the family values he maintains.
He said that beer and tobacco products represented only 1 percent of his store's total sales, but he said he may lose more than that because the people who bought beer and cigarettes will buy their groceries elsewhere.
But Ardeen Childs doesn't think Ream has much to worry about.
"I don't think they will lose a penny," he said. "There are enough people who share his values in the area to make up for it."
Beth Hicken, a Springville resident, said the decision spoke highly of Ream's character, which she said is worth more than any amount of money he could have made selling cigarettes.
Alana Stout, a Salt Lake City resident attending a beauty school in Provo, said Ream's proximity to the campus of Brigham Young University - where students pledge to not use alcohol, tobacco or coffee - would soften the loss of beer-drinking and smoking customers.