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.
CVS, which has 7,700 retail locations, is the second-largest drugstore chain in the USA, behind Walgreens.
The American Pharmacists Association called on drugstores to stop selling tobacco in March 2010 and several small, independent chains have done so, APA spokeswoman Michelle Spinnler says.
Smokers didn't just switch where they bought cigarettes and other tobacco products, some stopped buying them altogether.
"The contradiction of selling tobacco was becoming a growing obstacle to playing a bigger role in health care delivery," Merlo says. »