CVS to Stop Selling Cigarettes, forgo 2 Billion in revenue.

CVS kicks the habit, dropping tobacco products

From the article:

CVS Caremark said Wednesday it is getting out of the business of selling cigarettes, a decision that will cost its retail division $2 billion in annual sales.

"We made this decision as a business decision because we are positioning ourselves as a health-care company," said Helena Foulkes, CVS/pharmacy president.

The company, the nation's second-largest drugstore chain, has increasingly positioned its pharmacies as a health-care resource, with 750 retail clinics nationally located in its stores. But beyond its retail pharmacies, CVS Caremark's pharmacy benefit division contracts with large employers and health insurers to provide drug coverage.

"Increasingly, we have clients and health plans and health system partners who are seeing us as an extension of their health-care services," Foulkes said. "We know that the sale of tobacco is extremely inconsistent with being a health-care provider."

CVS is the first major pharmacy retailer to voluntarily stop selling tobacco products.

A more detailed article from the Wall Street Journal.

Good for them. I guess Walgreens shall become the smokers choice.

And that is that

Seems like a bad business move to me

@JML897:

Actually, it's a great business move. They may forgo the immediate profits on paper, but the positive social move is something that many people stand behind. I see there being fewer and fewer smokers as the negative health consequences associated with it become more and more commonplace.

At some point in our collective future I think smokers are going to be an extreme rarity.

As they should. It looks like they did it for the right reasons as well.

For the past decade, I've been buying tobacco from smoke shops in order to forgo the propaganda here up North

Cool, cigs blow anyway.

Welp thats good, hope more follow too. And next should be beer.

It would certainly lower the amount of low level people, bums and addicts that hang around the outside of those stores.

Tho they say they are doing it cuz as a pharmacy (and the up coming growth a of health care business they are going to be having), would look hypocritical selling tobacco products and that they care about people's health aint all that believable cuz they are a corporate like anyother and all they want is money.

There is an argument that was being talked about in the radio, if they care so much about people's health, then why dont they get rid of trashy junk food like candy, sodas, and unhealthy snacks too?

But whatever, I would love it if less places stopped selling tobacco products and beer in stores.

Beer just pissed me off.

@Master_Live:

walgreen has been said to be looking into doing it.

But im thinking Walgreen is going to wait it out to see how well or bad it goes for CVS before they do it too.

Pretty much....wonder if they take a big hit...will the reconsider.

it's a good decision with their current trajectory

Good for them. Hope more places follow suit.

Good.. I hope all gas stations doing it too.

In a statement released Wednesday, Walgreen said, "We have been evaluating this product category for some time to balance the choices our customers expect from us, with their ongoing health needs. We will continue to evaluate the choice of products our customers want, while also helping to educate them and providing smoking cessation products and alternatives that help to reduce the demand for tobacco products."

Rival Rite Aid echoed Walgreen's response, saying, "We continually evaluate our product offering to ensure that it meets the needs and interests of our customers."

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Which is the diplomatic way of saying **** off with that.

I wonder if there's any underlying business reason besides "it's weird for us to promote healthcare and smoking at the same time". Maybe too little demand and too much competition?

@Master_Live:

I guess you can look at it that way.... but that doesnt exactly mean it.

Usually when they say, 'we are evaluating" means "we dont know yet" or "we have no clue what to do yet"

Amazing, there was a time when doctors said it was good to smoke cigarettes. How far have out sense of health care have come to except that smoking can't be a bad to someone's health.

their banning cigarettes but trying to legalize cannabis, scratches head.

CVS is trying to legalize cannabis?

Not really, those sales are a drop in the bucket towards the entire business. The long term hope is that it's a step towards a healthier lifestyle and thus lowering health cost and disease rates. Lung cancer in correlation with smoking(something addictive) is one of the top killers year after year. After all they are a pharmaceutical company, and the CEO feels one needs to be health conscious. I guess we will see what happens...

not too often that you see businesses making moral decisions.

Good for them, I guess.

Me and my girl would be two of them. This is an awesome move by CVS and I support this move.

Bad business move but a good people move, doesn't seem to make sense that a healthcare focused company would be openly supporting and selling products that could kill you or at least make you sick.

See no problem with this. If it hurts their business, then that's on them and I couldn't give a shit. But even as a smoker, I always thought it was kind of weird. I never thought of CVS as just a general store, I always thought of them as the place I go for prescription meds. Always felt funny to go there and pick up drugs to help me, and then pick up cigarettes on my way out.

But then again, maybe I just feel that way because my CVS is just a block away from Wal-Mart. If that Wal-Mart weren't there, then I'd probably think of CVS as more of a "general store" rather than a "pharmacy/health store".

But, whatever. Not really my business. I'm currently trying to quit tobacco (and alcohol) anyway, so if all goes well then I soon won't give a flying f*** who sells cigarettes.

Lol a pharmacy selling tobacco, you yanks are hilarious!

That's a bold move.

The CEO probably got lung cancer.

Why are cigs still legal ?

Because government profits more from the sale of cigs than anyone.

My little state of KS derives between $200 and $250 million per year from sales and excise taxes on cigs, plus a little bit they are stilling collecting from the tobacco law suit in the 90s. And that money goes straight to the general fund, not to any special fund for health care.

If CVS wants to stop selling cigs, that is their choice and I have no problem with it. I just wish there was not so much moralizing about it. People make all sorts of legal choices that are bad for them in the long run. And businesses that cater to those choices are not immoral, nor are those that don't somehow morally superior.

well that's nice and all but the place is still full of shyt that is harmful.

are they going to stop selling oxycotin? soda? candy?

dying from smokes is wrong but dying from overdoses, diabetes and heart disease is no big deal?

seems to me like a meaningless pr gesture.

The oxycontin comment is just dumb. Them selling is isn't harmful. The idiot junkie misusing it is what is harmful. By your flawed logic, they shouldn't sell bottled water either. After all, you can overdose on water and kill yourself as well. *rolls eyes*

well then just ignore that part if you don't like it.

they still sell sugar and alcohol which is abused on a massive scale and just as deadly as tobacco.

this is obviously a transparent pr stunt.

will they stop selling chantix?

that shyt has an almost 100% fail rate after you are off the drug for 6 months and has killed hundreds of people.

if they are so morally upright then why carry any drug that is harmful and does not produce any positive medical benefits?

Im not anti smoking as a smoker myself but selling cigarettes in a pharmacy seems a little bizarre to me.

i see this a s a good business move. less people smoke nowadays and this positive and optimistic move can only help bring in more people. CVS is the largest pharmacy business in the U.S. so it probably won't hurt them too much.

you see CVS's and Walgreens' next to each other all the time; non-smokers may be more inclined to choose CVS simply because it's the lesser of two evils. kinda like voting in the US.

CVS is about as much as a pharmacy as any banal mini mart is.

I think it's a matter of perception. The actual NAME is "CVS Pharmacy". In actuality they're just a mini-mart that also has a pharmacy, but they sort of push the hell out of the pharmacy angle. So it's kind of weird that you can pick up your meds to treat conditions in part caused by smoking, and then pick up some cigarettes on their way out.

But again, like you said, it's really just a general store that ALSO has a pharmacy. Wal-Mart and Publix have pharmacies too, but I don't feel weird picking up cigarettes there. All I'm saying is that the weird double standard that CVS gets isn't just coming out of the blue. They chose to push the "pharmacy" thing front and center, it's part of their image. They deliberately tried to get the public to think of them in a certain way, and when you look at them in that way it seems kind of weird for them to be selling tobacco.

Of course, that also has nothing to do with whether or not it's a good business move. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, I frankly don't give a shit since I rarely go to CVS anyway.

i believe obama care was behind it

This is just a publicity stunt in which they hope to generate enough business to more than make up for the losses which of course won't happen.

The real story is the wild exaggerations about the effects of first and second hand smoke.

They are clearing the shelves for some cannabis.