CVS Caremark will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at CVS/pharmacy stores by October 1, 2014. Is CVS ahead of the curve? See E-cigs video below.
If you haven’t seen the commentary on CVS’ MOTHER of all decisions to discontinue tobacco sales, then you’re out of this…universe. I have seen articles written, from stockholders to doctors, and I am not surprised whatsoever at the “take” on this more than ethical choice. Life is all about options, and it’s typically about MONEY. CVS is a huge concern, and you can imagine how Walgreens, Rite-Aide and just about every other drug-store is smacking their tobacco laden lips. Yup, their competitors (including Walmart, Target as well,) are lining up to take all that business from CVS, not to mention the pharmaceutical business (and assorted retail sundries) to boot.
Here is where I draw the line. Isn’t it somewhat tragic when a customer can drop off a prescription for a medication to relieve his breathing, congestion, or otherwise respiratory ailment, and then pick up a pack of smokes on the way out? I am NO LONGER a smoker, so I can talk the talk now. Bully for them to have the huge “in your face to the shareholders” stones to catapult a nice and comfy revenue stream, such as tobacco! They may lose a few customers, at first. However, this brain trust realizes that consumers shop at many different stores these days, and those tobacco outlets who sell ONLY smokes, will prosper. I don’t buy everything at CVS, but when there’s a sale on milk or Tide, I’m all over it. If I smoked $366 worth of tobacco a month, you bet your black lungs that I’ll be shopping those puppies all over the city. Only a dummy would pay “RETAIL” for cancer sticks, so did CVS lose the dummy dollars, or gain a token of respect from healthy and wise consumers?
The winner will be announced during the next series of earnings reports due out next month.Not only do I applaud them for this bold move, but I’m sure some HUGE stockholder is upset because cancer sticks lead to sick peeps, which lead to more drugs, which lead to profits…..
Maybe CVS will replace their empty CIGSTICKS shelves with Twinkies, Coke, Jack Daniels, Adrenaline Drinks…hmmmm imagine the prescriptions that those products will require.. Maybe they’re not so dumb after all…
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — In today’s “Single Best Chart,” Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu displays the slowing retail sales of tobacco cigarettes as e-cigarettes take hold in the marketplace on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg Surveillance.”
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