My collection of restaurant matches is in a baggie inside a box somewhere. With smoking bans not to mention disposable lighters, restaurants don’t get much goodwill for providing matches for practical purposes but they’re still valuable for publicity and advertising. A matchbox supplier’s perspective: “When a state or municipality imposes a ban, we see a hesitation in reordering and a fall-off in new business. Then the volumes start to creep back up, so that within a year or so we see some resurgence in statewide sales. Matches have universal appeal, and that’s the mystery — that one little package could resonate with familiarity, maybe beauty, and a feeling of value.”