CVS announced recently that it would stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores by October of this year. The company will forgo an estimated $2 billion in sales in order to hold up its mission as a health care company.
Larry Merlo, CVS Caremark’s President and CEO, states in a message on the company’s website that “the sale of tobacco products is inconsistent with our purpose—to help [people] on their path to health.”
This decision has been lauded by many, including former smoker President Obama, who said it “will have a profoundly positive impact on the health of our country.” As the first major national drugstore chain to make such a bold move, the hope is that competitors like Walgreens and Rite Aid will follow suit.
With 480,000 deaths attributed to smoking and secondhand smoke, smoking remains the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the U.S. according to the Center for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. National drugstore chains like CVS can help to reduce this number by limiting outlets for the purchase of harmful tobacco products.
But how far is CVS willing to go for its reputation? While the elimination of cigarettes is a big step in the right direction, what about the products on CVS stores’ shelves which can lead to another major preventable cause of death—obesity? Foods high in sugar and fat are also contributors to conditions that Merlo specifically mentions, such as high cholesterol and diabetes.
The question is not whether these items should be sold at all—a bag of Doritos once in a while certainly won’t kill you—but whether they should be sold in a store self branded as a health care company. Processed foods high in sodium, sugar and fat, diet pills, and those tempting candy bars at the counter may not be as bad as cigarettes, but they’re definitely not “helping people on their path to health.”
CVS has taken the biggest offender to national health off its shelves, but if this was a move truly motivated by the company’s health care mission, we should see it extended to their food and product selection as well.
“Cigarettes and tobacco products have no place in a setting where health care is delivered,” Merlo says. But do Twinkies?
What do you think? Should CVS extend its “purpose” to its food selection as well or is taking cigarettes off shelves enough of a victory? Let us know in the comments!