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CVS to stop carrying tobacco products

captaincaveman

captaincaveman

http://www.turnto10.com/story/24638961/cvs-caremark-plans-stop-selling-tobacco-products
excerpt said:
The nation's second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost about $2 billion in annual revenue but won't affect its 2014 earnings forecast. CVS Caremark leaders say removing tobacco will help them grow the company's business of working with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve customers' health.
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...doesn't say anything about pipe tobacco.

So anyway, are they going to discard all their tobacco stock, clearance-price it, or sell it en masse to a wholesaler/retailer?

Edit: I just realized...the article doesn't mention it but I bet a big part of that decision was the increasing difficulty of dealing with tax regulations and the reduction in costs associated with training, enforcing, and paying penalties related to age verification.
 
August West

August West

A friendly reminder...http://wiki.badgerandblade.com/Terms_Of_Usage

From the B&B Terms of Usage.

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Heespharm

Heespharm

As a pharmacist and ex smoker I'm proud of what cvs is doing... As I still may or may not hate working for them ;-)
 
dpm802

dpm802

I won't miss it. I might buy one pack of cigarettes a year at CVS, only for the convenience when I go there for something else. I get my smokes at WaWa, its a lot cheaper.

I don't think that CVS made this decision lightly. $2B a year is a lot of money they won't be getting, and it will take quite a while to recoup that loss with something else. And I'm sure that they will find something else to fill the void before long.

I just wish that CVS would not try so hard to capitalize on their decision. Going tobacco-free will not make them a better store. But as a business decision, it should be done quietly without a lot of fanfare.

Wegmans made this decision several years ago. They stopped selling cigarettes shortly after they opened two stores in my area. It doesn't seem to hurt their business at all.
 
Commander Quan

Commander Quan

Commander Yellow Pantyhose
As a private entity they have every right to do what they believe is right for their customers, and shareholders, in projecting an image of a of wellness. If removing products that are deemed to be unhealthy, and that are only available to a legal adult who must specifically ask for the item, and show identification they they are of the legal age to buy that is their prerogative.

Meanwhile...
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redrako

redrako

I read an interesting article yesterday about how CVS and other large mega-retailers are banking on becoming low-level, ambulatory medical providers using Nurse practitioners. CVS is the first large company out of the gate with what is projected (in the article) to be a huge growth, high profit business with great potential growth for the next three years. Down the road it's anticipated that local hospitals and medical practice will be partnering with these small ambulatory practices. Dumping cigarette sales is a small, price to pay to move into the more lucrative, health care business.

As I understand the 2 billion dollar figure, that is a gross sales figure, I have no idea how profitable cigarette sales are for them. I can only imagine how profitable having the person writing the prescriptions a mere few feet away from the person who fills the prescription would be very profitable.

Unfortuately, I followed a link to a regular news site off of Twitter and don't recall which one.
 
PugslyCat

PugslyCat

You can be sure that somebody crunched the numbers and has already figured out how to recoup the net income. I'm guessing that ROI on tobacco products isn't great as for many other products. As Captain Caveman points out, there's additional training and record keeping for selling tobacco products. There's also extra handling in states that require all tobacco products be kept behind the counter. All in all, there are a lot of things they could sell in the same shelf space that comes with a lot less hassle, expense, and possible law enforcement action.

As for what is going to happen to current stock, I imagine they will stop ordering the slow movers right away, thus thinning things out in advance of the final cut off. At some point they'll stop ordering any new product.
 
Heespharm

Heespharm

dpm802 said:
I won't miss it. I might buy one pack of cigarettes a year at CVS, only for the convenience when I go there for something else. I get my smokes at WaWa, its a lot cheaper.

I don't think that CVS made this decision lightly. $2B a year is a lot of money they won't be getting, and it will take quite a while to recoup that loss with something else. And I'm sure that they will find something else to fill the void before long.

I just wish that CVS would not try so hard to capitalize on their decision. Going tobacco-free will not make them a better store. But as a business decision, it should be done quietly without a lot of fanfare.

Wegmans made this decision several years ago. They stopped selling cigarettes shortly after they opened two stores in my area. It doesn't seem to hurt their business at all.
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Well then how would the investors know;-) every major company in every genre does this it's for stock prices
 
captaincaveman

captaincaveman

oc_in_fw said:
Truthfully, as a smoker I always found it kind of odd that pharmacys sold smoking products.
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To be honest, given the variety of products sold in CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc, I don't understand why those stores are called "pharmacies" any more than Walmart is. They sell groceries, toys, gifts, greeting cards, cosmetics, photography supplies and services, etc. They are a general market with a pharmacy counter in the back.

Riff Raff said:
And now, beer and wine. Interesting to ponder.:001_huh:
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:laugh:

redrako said:
I read an interesting article yesterday about how CVS and other large mega-retailers are banking on becoming low-level, ambulatory medical providers using Nurse practitioners. CVS is the first large company out of the gate with what is projected (in the article) to be a huge growth, high profit business with great potential growth for the next three years. Down the road it's anticipated that local hospitals and medical practice will be partnering with these small ambulatory practices. Dumping cigarette sales is a small, price to pay to move into the more lucrative, health care business.

As I understand the 2 billion dollar figure, that is a gross sales figure, I have no idea how profitable cigarette sales are for them. I can only imagine how profitable having the person writing the prescriptions a mere few feet away from the person who fills the prescription would be very profitable.

Unfortuately, I followed a link to a regular news site off of Twitter and don't recall which one.
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You mean like their "minute clinic" that they were piloting in some stores? It's a great idea, what with the heavy, huge traditional healthcare system being way too cumbersome and expensive to efficiently handle the most common little things that regularly clog it. Get a person who is qualified to deal with the little things and give them the resources they need in a more efficient environment and everybody is happy.
 
Heespharm

Heespharm

captaincaveman said:
To be honest, given the variety of products sold in CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, etc, I don't understand why those stores are called "pharmacies" any more than Walmart is. They sell groceries, toys, gifts, greeting cards, cosmetics, photography supplies and services, etc. They are a general market with a pharmacy counter in the back.
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They are called pharmacies for two reasons... 1 the obvious is that legally we have to indicate that we sell pharmaceuticals in our signage 2. Typically a store will do 80 percent of the store profits in the pharmacy and despite the variety of items sold up front they only get 20 %... That's how ridiculously overpriced a lot of these prescriptions are
 
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