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<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/2014/02/05/cvs-caremark-plans-stop-selling-tobacco-products/kTpvZ80qK0PYdKxAT3MlvN/story.html”>http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/2014/02/05/cvs-caremark-plans-stop-selling-tobacco-products/kTpvZ80qK0PYdKxAT3MlvN/story.html</a></p>
<p>This is good news. I have to admit I am surprised that any company would pass up on $2 billion in revenue.</p>
<p>While they will lose some business, I suspect they will build some brand loyalty from those who want to support their decision. After losing my mom to COPD, I certainly support their decision.</p>
<p>I like this! Anything that makes it harder to get these disgusting things is A-OK with me. </p>
<p>I really, really like the direction that CVS is going with the healthy initiatives, minute clinics, etc. I think it’s a great model. </p>
<p>Agree. I think that it makes good business sense for them to do this. I think it will actually build revenue. i will be more likely to choose CVS over its competitors because of this decision. Doubt I’m alone.</p>
<p>I am already a huge CVS shopper and yes, this will encourage me to go there even more often. I appreciate when I can go into a store and not have to deal with the people who light up the second they exit with their brand new smokes. </p>
<p>I’m amazed that pharmacies still sell tobacco products in the U.S. Here in Ontario, tobacco sales in pharmacies were banned more than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>I was very pleased to read about this. A friend said that this decision makes it easy to choose CVS over competitors. I have to say I agree. I live in a small New England town and CVS was one of the few places kids could buy tobacco products. Now there’s one less place.</p>
<p>GOOD for CVS. </p>
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<p>Perhaps the relationships with the medical care industry (physicians, hospitals, etc.) and the public image benefits are worth more than that.</p>
<p>I bet that they don’t stop selling pharma’s nicotine products… The nicotine in the gum and patches and so forth is sourced fromt the tobacco companies.</p>
<p>I don’t think this was about sticking it to the tobacco companies, I think it was about changing their model of business. Nicotine gum & patches are part of the quitting process for many, and that’s much different than buying a pack of cigarettes. </p>
<p>I just got off the phone with my mom who applauded this decision. She smoked for 30-some years before finally quitting a few years ago (I know she still cheats now and again but when I was little it was a pack a day + habit). One of the things that helped her quit was when Michigan went smoke-free. She said this will help a lot of people who are still recovering because it reduces the temptation. I agree with her. </p>
<p>I’m hardcore about nicotine drug addiction. I don’t don’t view nicotine gum any differently than Skoal bandits or e-cigs. Cocaine is cocaine whether you snort it or smoke it. Heroin is heroin. Nicotine is nicotine. Marlboro and Nicorette are in the same business selling the same product (drug addiction). In my view, it’s hypocritical to reap a PR bonanza for stopping the sale of nicotine in one form while still actively selling it to junkies in another form.</p>
<p>I’m fine with CVS’s decision. I don’t think it will make any difference. If people were really serious about stopping smoking, they would get nicotine out of the convenience stores, where they are most available to teens. If anything, I’d go the opposite direction and have them sold only behind the counter in pharmacies. </p>
<p>Just as an aside from a former nicotine junkie. If someone “still cheats now and again”, she hasn’t really stopped smoking. People who have been addicted to nicotine can’t do that, just as a heroin addict can’t shoot up every once in a while. Unfortunately, that’s not the way physical drug addiction works. The brain chemistry of addiction is lying dormant and reactivated if the drug is administered again.</p>
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<p>I would guess that their volume was so low (inability to compete in what is now a heavily price-sensitive low-margin business) that it wasn’t worth the significant shelf space and checkout manpower costs.</p>
<p>Some addictions are more harmful than others. I am addicted to coffee, but most likely it won’t harm me as much as smoking would.</p>
<p>Does Nicorette carry similar risks as smoking/chewing? (Not arguing, I honestly hadn’t heard so I am asking.)</p>
<p>I do know that if something could have helped my 3-pack-a-day father before it killed him at age 47, I’d want it to be still sold.</p>
<p>Garland, my issue with smoking is the public health risks. Chewing tobacco doesn’t really affect people around you nearly as much as cigarettes do.
Yes, Nicorette carries risks but the tobacco in them is MUCH, MUCH lower than cigarettes or chew/spit. It is nothing compared to the risks those carry. </p>
<p>My grandma died of lung cancer in her late 50s/early 60s (I was 3- I can’t remember exactly how old she was). I too want the cessation methods to still be available in pharmacies. </p>
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<p>Thanks for telling me about MY mother. She has replaced smoking cigarettes with smoking weed for the most part. She never buys cigarettes and only smokes once in a great while when she’s drinking.
I never said she was no longer addict. An addict is an addict forever. But from a pack or more a day to once a month, maybe, I’ll take it. Addiction affects some people differently than others. </p>
<p>I bet CVS analyzed the sales of tobacco products and realized it was an add-on sale to core products and by cutting it, they would not sacrifice any other sales and possibly build up goodwill by cutting a fairly low margin product. </p>
<p>CVS has sales of $22b last year, so tobacco was just under 10% of sales, yet the eps impact is only $0.17 of $3.79 or 4.4%. Very smart business decision, as tobacco is also a product that has a high ‘shrink’ or theft rate. </p>
<p>Tobacco products are the primary driver of traffic at convenience stores such as 7-11, so they price it as low as possible and hope smokers pick up high margin stuff like chips and soda. Not a huge loss for cvs. </p>
<p>Speaking from experience, selling cigarettes, apart from being a low margin endeavor, is a gigantic pain. They have to be kept behind the counter where the gazillion brands take up valuable real estate and require cashier time hunting for whatever obscure brand the customer wants. Plus there’s the ID checking aspect. So I can understand the CVS decision. But the business will just move to supermarkets and convenience stores, so it’s not as if CVS is improving the state of the world.</p>
<p>Am glad CVS made this choice and am happier filling my Rx there. They are the participating and preferred pharmacy for my insurer. </p>
<p>Hope having it less available helps more folks to quit. </p>
<p>Wish we were more like Canada in how tobacco is sold – with large, gross graphic pictures on the packs and only a small black sign on white lettering indicating tobacco sold in the store. </p>
<p>The thing is it’s not less available at all. it’s across the street.</p>
<p>I think getting tobacco out of a drug store is a great first step. It does send the wrong message. So does the alcohol, candy and chips.</p>