CVS banned tobacco. Now its sales are hurting

money.cnn.com ^ | 8/4/2015 | Matt Egan

[rktman]

Last September, CVS became the first major pharmacy chain in America to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores. The drug store chain said it was the right thing to do -- even though it would hurt sales.

Now CVS (CVS) is detailing just how much the tobacco ban is impacting the company. While prescription sales continue to rise, general merchandise sales tumbled nearly 8% last quarter on a same-store basis.

CVS blamed the slump on the tobacco ban. The company said front-store sales would have been flat compared with the year before if they didn't make the change.

[Arm_Bears]

Time to replace senior management and the Board of Directors at CVS.

[bgill]

Maybe they should ban alcohol sales, too.

[Drango]

let’s ask the stockholders how much they like being politically correct now!

You didn't read the article did you? Here I'll help you: CVS shares have soared 40% over the past year and hit all-time highs just last week.

[Mears]

I have been smoking for many years.

I’ll be 83 in September but I know the smoking will take YEARS off of my life.

Oh well,only the good die young.

.

[docbnj]

Sorry, guys. This is a moral issue. It makes no sense for a drugstore to be selling a poisonous substance. It is no inconvenience for smokers to go somewhere else to get their nicotine fix, if they really want to waste their money as they try to kill themselves.

Would you consider that CVS was being sanctimonious if they declined to offer on-site abortions? People don’t have to engage in trade which they know is harmful, if they really care about their customers.

[lodi90]

I suppose long term CVS wants to be a health care provider for socialized medicine. They already have these minute clinics.

But in the short term they are losers because there is usually a walgreens across the street with lower prices and selling cigs.

[tnlibertarian]

I quit going to CVS because I could never figure out their hours. I think they were open something like Mon-Thur 10:23am - 3:14pm, with random hours other days, but never when it is dark outside, even if from a rain cloud. Oh, and even if open, you have to roam the store to find the cashier, who is stocking shelves or developing film or out back harvesting the spearmint to make the gum or something.

Meanwhile, the Walgreens across the street was open 24 hours a day.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Buy anything in a CVS that is not currently on sale and you’re getting SCROOOOOOOD to the wall.

[Buckeye McFrog]

You sound like my grandfather who predicted in the 1970’s that in the future everything in the supermarket would be going under glass, Automat-style, with a coin slot, due to out-of-control shoplifting.

[docbnj]

One case does not prove a general rule. Perhaps you have not died yet, but your brain does not seem to be working at optimum level. How do you know how healthy you would be if you had NOT been smoking?

Have you ever, ever had a doctor tell you that your smoking was a good idea?

Old smokers are just the left overs of the smoking population. You are ignoring and discounting the victims. It would be as if a veteran said, “The war wasn’t really so bad, because I lived through it, and it didn’t kill me.” You are looking at only the surviving part of the sample.

But if this is the way you think, try to be happy about it, because we all die sometime, and even a fool can make it a few years longer.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

I've seen a lot of tragedy related to smoking, including my father dying of lung cancer. It was his choice, and I am not in favor of taking that choice away from others. That said, anyone who thinks smoking is not a profound health hazard is delusional. It's not just about the smoke in your lungs. It promotes systemic inflammation. It promotes vasoconstriction and is thrombogenic. That's just for starters. It causes emphysema in part because it causes activation of elastases (enzymes that degrade elastin - a very vital component of the elasticity of lungs, skin, and blood vessels). That same elastase activity contributes to premature aging of appearance. I very seldom see a patient with severe peripheral arterial disease that wasn't/isn't a smoker, and too many of them wind up with amputations.

In short, there are lots of ways to assert your independence and not be dictated to by others. Smoking is a very bad choice.

[billys kid]

Same here.

[fishtank]

[lodi90]

My grandmother died in her 80’s last month after battling smoking induced COPD for more than a decade. She quit smoking 30 years ago and it didn’t help in the end. That’s not the way I want to check out, that’s for sure.

[Drango]

Didn’t read the article or comments did you? If so did you notice the 40% increase in stock price in the last year??

[tumblindice]

JC Penneys and jock-sniffing: how’d that work out for you `Jock Penet’?

[rktman]

Their choice not to sell, many people choose not to go there because of it or just because of the anti-nannie state mind set. But, like I said. Their choice.

[GingisK]

Get with the times, geezer.

Your youthful assholemanship is showing. Learn respect for you elders, punk.

[SamAdams76]

Maybe, but in my case, it’s all coming true. As recently as 10 years ago, old codgers were poo-pooing internet shopping and now it’s a mega-billion dollar industry and still growing rapidly. Little old ladies are ordering underwear and darning needles on Amazon.

[GingisK]

Got GIT?

God blesses me everyday. Since I work on stuff young youngsters don't know anything about, I work by myself. That means I don't have to use any of those nasty source control systems. I make my own rules and get projects finished in a twinkling of an eye. You guys have to fight the tools and each other's ego. I get the last laugh.