After working at a pharmacy for 5 months, it is now easy to recognize tobacco consumers as they wait patiently at the register with one thing in mind. Their money laid out in exact change gazing longingly at the memorized location of the package they cannot live without. While I am asking the customer’s birthdate just yards to my left, at the back of the store, the pharmacist is asking for someone else birthdate for the medication that they also cannot live without. The contradiction of pharmacies selling not only healthy and essential items, but drugs that make customers ill is the battle between sales and values. Does a chain base their sales on the demands of consumers? Or concentrate on the original goal as a pharmacy to help keep patrons healthier.
Last Wednesday CVS Caremark Company announced the halt of all tobacco products starting in October. This is a very bold move for the company considering they are the first large drugstore chain to make the move to anti-tobacco. The widespread news of this decision has caused a many call CVS their only drugstore while others consider this change a bad move business wise. Overall CVS Caremark will lose $2 billion in sales from tobacco sales, but overall that is just a mere drop in their $123 billion income.
While the momentous step CVS has taken to make the option to purchase tobacco in their stores no longer a possibility, it begs the question how many people will this decision honestly affect? Drugstores themselves only account for 3.6% of cigarette sales while 63.4% of people purchase cigarettes at convenience stores. Although CVS’ statement of the non-necessity of cigarettes in pharmacies is a positive move towards a world without tobacco, the overall sale of tobacco will not be hindered by much. I applaud CVS on their courageous and innovative move towards a non tobacco business. This decision will hopefully pave the way for other business to see the display of values. And will in turn decrease the number of tobacco available venues further depleting the negative effects of tobacco which cause 480,000 US deaths annually.
Sources:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/05/272105414/most-smokers-dont-buy-their-cigarettes-at-cvs