CVS is a wonderful place. Once you walk into CVS, you will find dieting supplements in one aisle and junk food in the next, Plan B contraception behind the baby formula aisle, and at the cash register you can buy nicotine patches along with your desired tobacco products. Well the latter is not going to be available after October of this year anymore. What’s behind CVS’s decision to sacrifice the annual $2 billion in sales?
The second-largest drugstore in the U.S. that has over 7,600 stores nationwide is the first nationally recognized drugstore to drop tobacco from their assortment. CVS Caremark Corp. leaders said that the ban will allow the company to grow in terms of improving relations with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve the health of their customers. Or in other words: Photoshop the pharmacy’s reputation and image.
President Obama encourages the change and praised it in recent news. I for one don’t, but I don’t buy my cigarettes at CVS anyway. We are well aware the (fatal) harms cigarettes can cause. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the U.S., accounting for one in five deaths and direct medical costs ranging from $50 billion – $73 billion annually. There’s no arguing with that.
But research shows that obesity is overtaking tobacco as the leading cause. Will that stop them from selling junk foods ranging from chips to syrups? Not willingly, at least. Any kind of unhealthy foods are available at CVS containing large amounts of fat, sodium, corn syrup, sugar and cholesterol.
What goes hand in hand with tobacco products? That’s right, alcohol. Alcohol and tobacco is a perfect match. The CDC reported that 88,000 people die from excessive alcohol use each year in the U.S. Along with that, alcohol can cause serious long-term effects. Yet beers will still be available at certain stores – and not just a couple, there’s an entire aisle dedicated to beer.
Whether CVS does or does not sell tobacco products is not going to have a detrimental effect on the U.S. retail sales of tobacco, as cigarettes sales at drugstores are less than four percent, according to researcher Euromonitor International. In fact, the share of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically since 1970, from nearly 40 percent to about 18 percent. The share will most likely drop some more in the future.
The appraisal that CVS received is undeserved – it’s simply a loss they can afford, while making themselves look better in the eye of the viewer. Products that harm health or have side effects are still available to anyone who walks in and preferably has a CVS card so the retailer can mine the data you provide them with.
Cigarettes have taken the shelf-space behind the registers for decades, so the big question is: What can possibly replace the classic product in the exquisite shelf space? We’ll find out in October.
