Janine Savoie – Special to the Southern News
With over 7,600 stores within the United States, CVS is considered to be one of the largest pharmacy chains. The store sells everything from medicine, make-up, candy, grocery items, and even develops film, but recently, CVS has decided to no longer sell tobacco products.
The chain will make the transition from a retail setting to a sole healthcare provider right as the Affordable Care Act is put into play. Because more and more people will be placed into the healthcare system as part of the act, an overflow in the pharmacy is expected. The company has also reported that many of their customers have always loved the pharmacy and what the chain has to offer, but many of these customers have a problem with tobacco. Selling tobacco, something that is not only unhealthy, but also deadly, is a product that CVS is no longer looking for provide for their customers as they take the step towards more goals in healthcare. By doing this, they also have the potential to gain more business through hospitals and insurance companies.
However, CVS won’t be leaving their tobacco-buying customers in the dark. The company has said that they plan to begin a nationwide smoking cessation program starting this coming spring. Executives are hoping that the company’s decision will further contribute to the ongoing campaign that is trying to make smoking or any form of tobacco use, socially unacceptable.
While laws vary by city and state, pharmacies in San Francisco and Boston have already been banned from selling any tobacco products. Looking at CVS as a pharmacy, I do see where they are coming from with the ban, but I also wonder if it will hurt their sales. The move could cost the company a whopping $2 billion in annual revenue according to Yahoo Finance. But CEO Larry Merlo said that it’s “simply the right thing to do for the good of the customers and the company.”
Selling tobacco at a pharmacy, in my eyes, is hypocritical. It makes me wonder how many lung cancer or smoking related illness patients are coming to the CVS pharmacy for their medication, passing the cigarettes as they enter the store.
According to the CDC, about 443,000 people will die prematurely each year from tobacco related use or exposure to secondhand smoke. While over eight million others will live on with some kind of serious illness in relation to smoking. It’s been half a century since the U.S. Surgeon General’s report that warned Americans of the dangers of smoking. The CDC said that since then, tobacco users have taken a dramatic plunge from 42% to 19%.
Aside from CVS, no other major retailer has eliminated tobacco from their store since Target stopped selling it in 1996. I don’t think smokers will mind though, they will just have to go elsewhere for their fix.
