What's next? Beer, wine, chewing gum, greeting cards...
None of my family or friends smoke but I don't need CVS dictating their own moral codes on the public.
Bet they"ll sell pot if its legalized and no I don't do that either.

Hats off to CVS for having the guts to eliminate the sales of tobacco products in their stores. I would love to see a major supermarket chain also rise to the occasion. As a former smoker I do remember quitting, over 35 years ago. If you want to quit it really is not all that difficult. In fact, it is easy.......but you have to really want to not smoke anymore.

CVS drops tobacco in health play; Walgreen burns - chicagotribune.com

While I applaud the decision, this column with quotes from Merlo who clearly states that this was a business decision that he does not believe will hurt his company and will in fact increase the income. He is trying to position CVS to be a competitor to a doctor's office and offer primary care using non doctors. Tobacco sale is about 1% of CVS's sales.

[quote=keithwand;825039]What's next? Beer, wine, chewing gum, greeting cards...
None of my family or friends smoke but I don't need CVS dictating their own moral codes on the public.[/

Some other stores I include in the ones that dictate their morals on the public and their employees are Hobby Lobby and Chik-Fil-A.

It is up to the public whether to use the store or not on an individual basis - or even to boycott as a group.

Right on!!

This is an extension of our nanny state into corporate america.

Everyday more of our freedoms are being taken away.

How about leave us alone.

Isn't it up to a store to decide for themselves what they choose to sell? If they are authorized to sell a product such as tobacco, they can willfully choose to sell it or not.

I remember a large store in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, that sold guns, ammo, and liquor all in the same store - but would not sell tobacco because the father of the owner died from smoking related disease.

Would you call that "nanny state" or moral choice?

This is a CEO I can respect. A man who stands up for what he thinks is right. A man who places principle ahead of profits.
If you don't support his policies, just shop at Walgreens. Freedom of choice, it's the American way.

The decision by CVS to drop tobacco products is not quite as altruistic as it may first appear.

They will initially get a lot of good PR, which is obvious, but tobacco products are not all that profitable for CVS. Yet, they are a pain in the butt at the store level. They are labor intensive to stock and to process at the cashier station. Now, that shelf space will be available for more profitable and less labor intensive items.

Unless I'm completely missing something, I don't understand this at all. A privately owned chain of stores (free enterprise...) makes a decision not to sell a particular product, and that makes us a "nanny state" and represents our freedoms being taken away? What freedom is being taken from me when a private business enterprise makes a decision as CVS has? At the risk of being facetious, am I going to hear next that the "nanny state" should step in and mandate that CVS cannot do what it has decided to do?

I don't experience stores running their moral codes on me; if anything, it's the reverse. There are stores and other businesses I choose not to patronize for a variety of reasons, and I am free to boycott them in relation to my own moral codes. My boycott may not amount to a hill of beans to the business, but I must live with myself, and no government agency is telling me what to do in relation to this.

I am amused at the hypocrisy of those who don't want government involvement in their lives, that is, until it serves them to have the services of the government available to them.... However, what CVS chooses to do regarding tobacco products has nothing to do with governmental dictates; those who feel the chain has done this for purely profitable business reasons with no regard for the public are certainly entitled to feel this way. I would suspect that there are smokers and others who will choose to boycott CVS, and that is certainly their right. But the government is not involved in this one!

Wrong! This IS about freedom, freedom for a drugstore chain to sell whatever they choose to sell. We can give our opinions and try to influence what they sell but we cannot dictate what they must sell.


We now have a little more freedom from tobacco products, that's an added freedom. No freedoms were taken away.

Speaking of freedom of choice: There's freedom of choice for investors too. I noticed that CVS stock went down when the news came out and Walgreen's stock jumped up quite a bit. If Walgreens keeps being rewarded, I doubt they will change their policy anytime soon. Only time will tell.

How about this same company not selling the day after pill. Is that their choice? Your choice? The governments choice?

What else do they decide what not to sell based on their morale convictions or perceived health benefits?

I guess eventually we the consumer will have to know which drug stores sell what. Blah. I've got enough other stuff to think about.

To me it makes more sense to sell what people are buying and let the people themselves decide if they want to use a certain product.

I think that it's up to the decision makers at CVS to decide what inventory to stock. I don't see how it's a freedom being taken away ... people are free to shop anywhere they want.

It may be a symbolic public-relations gambit, but personally, I like it!

Whatever the reason, hats off to CVS. I am more likely to go there now, though in general I truly dislike the corner pharmacy store model.

Hooray
 

Being PC is overrated. I agree - this CEO has a backbone and I respect that!
Sometimes you do what is "just right".