Walmart stops selling cigarettes in some stores

Nathaniel Meerson, CNN Business

(CNN / KDKA) – Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, will stop selling cigarettes in some US stores after years of pressure on major networks to stop selling tobacco.

Cigarettes are being removed from Walmart in a variety of markets, including some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal. reported Monday. In some of these stores, Walmart has added more self-checkout registrars, as well as other items such as food or candy instead of cigarettes, the magazine said.

The move is Walmart’s latest change in tobacco policy.

Walmart, which has about 5,000 stores in the United States, in 2019 raised the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21 and stopped selling e-cigarettes. Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, has also stopped selling cigarettes at most of its stores in recent years.

Walmart does not report how many of its stores have completely removed the tobacco. A Walmart spokesman told CNN Business that he had made a “business decision” to stop selling tobacco in some stores “as a result of our constant attention to the tobacco category.”

In Western Pennsylvania there are about 20 Walmart and Walmart Supercenter seats. It is unknown whether there will be any changes in tobacco sales.

Health officials have long urged retailers to stop selling tobacco products, and some cities and states have also banned the sale of tobacco in pharmacies.

More than two dozen attorneys general in 2014 sent letters major retailers with pharmacies, including Walmart, to stop selling tobacco.

“There is a controversy over the availability of these dangerous and destructive tobacco products on the shelves of a healthcare chain,” the letters said.

In 2014, CVS announced it was discontinuing tobacco sales. At the time, CVS said the move would cost him revenue of about $ 2 billion. CVS stated that the sale of tobacco is “incompatible with our goal” of being a health care provider.

Walgreens CEO Rose Brewer said last year that tobacco sales are under “real control”.

Costco sells tobacco in some stores. Target stopped selling tobacco in 1996.

Cigarette sales in the United States grew in 2020 for the first time in two decades.

The North American Quitline Association, a non-profit organization that promotes tobacco cessation services, has attributed the abolition of “stress and anxiety resulting from a pandemic.”

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