CVS Pulls Tobacco Products From Its Stores

[musicaljoke]

Ontario pharmacies stopped selling cigarettes 20 years ago, so it seems really odd to me to know that there still are pharmacies that sell cigarettes. I think that the only place in Canada where you still can buy cigarettes in a pharmacy is British Columbia. You probably can pick up some fine BC bud while you're there.

 

[coeurfragile]

While I don't have any opinion about them selling or not selling cigarettes, I'll happily gripe about the rest of their services like the rest of you

My employer switched to CVS/Caremark for our rx drug program and I hate it with a passion. I like getting my scripts filled at the grocery store where they know me and I never have problems. Now I have to use CVS for my scripts or my insurance doesn't cover them, which is Carp!! We only have 2 cvs stores in this area so it's out of the way and inconvenient. Only other option is to do mail order which I grudgingly did, but I find that inconvenient too.

Anyways, it's OT but cvs won't be getting my business except when required by insurance. I understand their position but is it going too far? People are free to make their own decisions about what to buy, harmful or not.

 

[STANDREID]

Well, probably a good idea, but as a smoker who sometimes buys cigs at CVS, I'm wondering if they're also gonna pull all the candy and chips they sell? Or what about the various snake-oil "homeopathic" remedies I've seen on their shelves? :waiting:

I'm not a smoker but, yes, they need to also pull their booze, candy, soda and lunch meat if they want to be consistent.

 

[michmi]

I'm not against the idea. I'm also not against the idea of not selling alcahol, and junky food and drinks. (Although, I've never seen alcahol in a CVS! We aren't dry here, but they don't sell it.)

I honestly had no idea so many people still smoked! Smoking is banned here. You pretty much can't smoke anywhere but your house and in public outdoor places. (You can't even smoke in restaurants and bars that have outdoor areas.) You can't smoke within a certain proximity to the openings of places. I can't remember the last time I actually saw someone smoke. This is going to sound so incredibly naive, but is there really a huge population of people who still smoke? Knowing what it does to you? I guess that doesn't stop anyone with an addiction, really. I am just surprised by the backlash.

I smoke outside my house. That's it. I smoke 4 cigarettes a day because I enjoy them. I have no idea if lots of people smoke and it has no bearing on what I do anyway.

 

[Solitaryone]

Why would anyone buy cigs at CVS or any drugstore when they are cheaper at a smoke shop? And many things sold at CVS and other drugstores, same brands are much cheaper at Family Dollar or Walmart ( ie hair color, ambolsol, make-up etc etc...). The only things I get at CVS is my meds. and flu shot and holiday candy the day after the holiday for 50% off.:twocents:

So true! I go to smoke shop and buy tobacco and tubes. I have a machine I roll them in. It's much cheaper that way.

 

[K_Z]

I have lived in many states, and a handful of countries. Where I currently live, you can only buy alcoholic beverages in a designated liquor store--most of which are owned by city governments, with no local competition from the marketplace. That means no wine or beer in grocery stores, gas stations, Target, etc. Nearly every legislative session, a bill is introduced to allow alcohol sales in grocery stores, and it has failed every time. The lobbies are strong here. It seems very repressed, backwards, and archaic that I can't buy a bottle of wine in the same store when I purchase steaks for the grill.

I have long believed that if the retail sale of alcohol is to be controlled this tightly, then certainly all tobacco products should be sold ONLY in a special tobacco store. I am just fine with smokers and chewers having to make a special stop to get their smokes and chew, since I have to make a special stop to buy my bottle of wine.

And I am just fine with CVS stopping tobacco sales. They may lose some sales, but I think it was a carefully considered decision. They don't have to sell anything they don't want to.

 

[LookingHoping]

No special stops here in northern New England… wine, beer and hard liquor in the grocery stores. Thank goodness because sometimes a grocery store is a good drive away, driving all around for more would get impossible, especially at holiday time and with the weather! I'm not a crazed conspiracy type person, but I don't feel more controls right now is where the focus should be. I do agree a store can choose to sell what they want, so go for it CVS. Mine is pretty far away anywayLOL Honestly, alcohol over tobacco makes more sense to me as second hand smoke isn't in businesses nor restaurants anymore, but people continue to drive around drunk and kill people.

I'll also say I recall CVS had cheaper cigarettes than most places? Correct me if I'm wrong, I recall this back in my smoking days. CVS was one of the cheapest places around. Maybe that is why they weren't making money as they were for years trying to get people to buy from them with their cheaper prices. Now, they are opting out. I say this has NOTHING to do with CVS trying to help the health of the general public.

 

[Karmady]

CVS can sell what it wants and take the financial hit for its decision, if there is one. That's what a free market is all about, no? I think they're just recognizing that hardly anyone smokes anymore relatively speaking. I seriously know only one person who smokes regularly and she's constantly trying to quit.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I've never smoked so the fact that CVS is going to stop selling cigarettes has no effect on me. That said, I rarely go to CVS because anything that I might get there is available at Meijer with better selection and prices. We get most of our prescriptions through mail order pharmacy and only go to CVS for short-term meds.

One of the things that I don't like about CVS is the ridiculous register tape that takes up more space in the bag than whatever I bought! Does anyone actually take the time to read through those serpentine coupons? I sure don't, and they end up in the same place as the plastic bag - the recycle bin.

 

[SwampMama]

I've never smoked so the fact that CVS is going to stop selling cigarettes has no effect on me. That said, I rarely go to CVS because anything that I might get there is available at Meijer with better selection and prices. We get most of our prescriptions through mail order pharmacy and only go to CVS for short-term meds.

One of the things that I don't like about CVS is the ridiculous register tape that takes up more space in the bag than whatever I bought! Does anyone actually take the time to read through those serpentine coupons? I sure don't, and they end up in the same place as the plastic bag - the recycle bin.

BBM = Amen to that!! I hate those ridiculously long coupon/special offer register taps that drag the floor because they are so freaking long. What a waste of paper.

 

[QueenD]

I wanted to add to my post earlier but I was in the drive through at the worlds best chicken take out and I had to pull up to pay.
I live in a rural area, and don't have many choices for shopping. We have Cvs, walgreens , Winn Dixie and family dollar. Of those choices I choose cvs. I do buy my smokes there and whatever else they have I may need.
Cvs was here before Walgreens and I am just not crazy over the walgreens here in my general area.
The Winn Dixie is horribly nasty to me, I never go there. Publix is my choice for grocery shopping, Have to drive in town for that. The family dollar always looks like a cyclone has hit it, so I don't go there.
I agree with everyone else, if CVS is going toward the "healthy" store they should start first with those 3 freakin aisle of candy they sell, then the wine, then the beer.

I never get why they have 3 aisle with junk food and candy on it? Why so many choices?

Ok lastly, what is a smoke store?

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

...Ok lastly, what is a smoke store?

A specialty shop that carries cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, etc.

 

[TrackerSam]

I say this has NOTHING to do with CVS trying to help the health of the general public.

Nope, purely business. They probably found a product with a higher mark up and need the shelf space.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Nope, purely business. They probably found a product with a higher mark up and need the shelf space.

My guess: Gaming machines. My neighborhood CVS already looks like an arcade!

 

[21merc7]

Nope, purely business. They probably found a product with a higher mark up and need the shelf space.

And some sort of other financial benefits I am sure.

I have no problems with them not selling cigs, it would have made more sense if the never sold them to begin with, but I know it is for financial gain at this point, and was when selling them. Eh, big business. Nothing matters but the $$$.

I have no problems with them selling a gazillion types of chips, gazillion types of candies, garbage food, and snake oil carp. It is all just in my way, but fascinates me that the world of candy is so massive, :crazy:

I have problems with them NOT selling much in the way of first aid necessities or just regular drug store items, and taking all the shelf space for junk stuff, to include plastic furniture in the floor of a small space, that gets smaller with each new aisle of useless (to me) junk.

I also have a problem that they have become overpriced on every item in the store. Everything there can be purchased for less now at any other Drug Store, Big Box Store, or Grocery Store. Guess that is why the yards of paper coupons are necessary, to get the price within competitor range.


I used to love CVS years ago, but something in the last few years really changed. Too much junk, too high prices, never anything I went there for.

Guess I could find something to complain about with every store I go to, which is very few, but I just see this as blatantly all about the money while saying it is because the corporation cares for it's customers. That is just false.

 

[mmmirele]

I have to admit I was a bit pleased when I heard CVS was phasing out cigarettes. My mom is always running down there to buy a couple of packs. Now she'll have to run to Walgreens or the grocery store.

Mom shouldn't be smoking anyway, she has emphysema and she had a heart attack last Saturday. When she got out of the hospital on Monday (after an angioplasty) and my brother brought her home, the first thing she did was get a cup of coffee and light up a cig. And then she had the chutzpah to tell me that she didn't inhale! After joking with her about Bill Clinton, I told her she'd be better off with a nicotine patch or how about the e-cig she had sitting on her coffee table.

 

[Steft50]

We don't have CVS where I live, so doesn't apply to anyone here at all. We have Walgreens, which I will no longer go into since they decided not to accept military insurance Tricare. Then we have the grocery stores that have pharmacys, and I think Sams clubs and perhaps Costcos? When I smoked I usually only got them at the gas stations, sometimes on post, and sometimes at Walgreens if I was in there for other stuff. I always thought it was ironic I was buying otc inhaler to help me breathe while at the same time buying a couple packs of smokes.

 

[blue22]

I smoke outside my house. That's it. I smoke 4 cigarettes a day because I enjoy them. I have no idea if lots of people smoke and it has no bearing on what I do anyway.

Okay...?

 

[Angels_Not_Forgotten]

I get my smokes a dollar cheaper at rite aid than anywhere else. I may just stop smoking If I had to pay more than 4 a pack. That being said, I hate cigarettes, the way they taste, the smell, my mood swings without them.

I'm kinda sorta hoping they stop selling them at rite aid just to see if that would be what could help put these disgusting things down.

I quit cold turkey while pregnant, didn't smoke while I breast fed. But the minute I had a beer it was all she wrote. Cigarettes back in hand.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[panthera]

My guess: Gaming machines. My neighborhood CVS already looks like an arcade!

I recall those things in every store when I briefly lived in Nevada years ago.

:floorlaugh:

As for CVS no longer carrying cigarettes, that is their prerogative. Some tobacco products are actually cheaper at local convenience stores. Also know some people who purchase cartons of cigarettes at the tribal casinos.