CVS didn’t have to choose to stop selling tobacco products
in their drugstores. Yet, they have chosen healthcare has their ultimate mission. To stay true to this mission, they have
focused their business on the health and the wellness of their customers. Thus,
there is no place for tobacco or tobacco related products in their stores. They are putting health and positive outcomes
of people over profits. They are
estimated to lose $2 billion in annual sales but this has not stopped them. In
fact, they put this practice into effect one month sooner than they promised.
This is the change that I challenged BIG Businesses to take.
CVS was taking this challenge long before I wrote my Sensory Steps, Inc. blog article “What
Should Be Done About Healthcare”. While
some state that having one retail pharmacy banning sales on tobacco will have
little impact on reducing the use of tobacco use, it makes a statement. It also
stands in line with their mission and shows that they are truly about
healthcare and outcomes before the almighty dollar. As well, children will not be seeing these products in the store; minimizing the use of tobacco products by underage children.
The long-term results of CVS removing tobacco from their
shelves will hopefully forge the way for others to follow. The other major drugstore
companies have yet to follow suit. It
appears they are too fearful to remove tobacco products since tobacco is such a
major portion of the bottom-line. These
companies may advocate that they are all about health but truly they are all
about the American dollar. Being
pharmacy health stores they should start practicing what they preach. There should not be poisons sold alongside
medicine.
CVS
Health-good for you! Good for you, for practicing
health and wellness! Good for you, for choosing to think about what is best for your
consumers! I personally will now be a lifelong customer. I will go out of my
way to shop at your store over other pharmacy retailers. Thank you for making
the right choice and helping to make a step in the right direction by setting a
cultural change, even if it may take a cut out of your bottom-line. Yet, look! Now you've just earned a new
lifelong customer as a result of this decision.
~Stephanie
Puryear ~
