CVS Will Stop Selling Tobacco...Who Do They Think They Are?

USAToday – CVS Caremark plans to stop selling tobacco products in all of its stores starting Wednesday — a move health experts hope will be followed by other major drugstore chains.CVS announced in February that it planned to drop tobacco by Oct. 1 as the sales conflicted with its health care mission. To bolster its image as a health care company, CVS will announce a corporate name change to CVS Health. Retail stores will still be called CVS/Pharmacy.

Alright, let me just step back really quick and ask the question that we’re all wondering. Does anybody actually purchase tobacco from CVS? Never in my life have I seen anybody walk out of a CVS with a pack of cigs. Never. It’s where you go to stock up on ZzzQuil and grab a bag of Jolly Ranchers while you’re there anyway. So I don’t get what the big deal is here because I’m pretty sure most people didn’t even realize CVS had tobacco. This is like gas stations going out there and making a big deal out by saying they’re not (legally) selling prescription drugs and Neosporin anymore. But then to go out and start offering “quit-smoking programs” is the coup de grace, the icing on the cake, the straw that broke the camel’s back, the whatever. CVS is now officially the biggest bunch of try-hards in the pharmaceutical game. Just waiting for us to start parading around chanting C.V.S. and look to them as our champion. Well spare me the song and dance, CVS, because I’m not buying it. Figure out a way to put the 2-in-1 in the same aisle as the deodorant and Jolly Ranchers and then maybe we’ll talk.