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Question for Americans

Miss Chicken

Miss Chicken

Little three legged cat with attitude
Admiral
I just read this

One of America's largest pharmacy chains will become the first in the country to take cigarettes off its shelves.
CVS Caremark Group says it will stop selling tobacco products at its 7,600 stores by October.
CVS, whose Caremark unit is a major pharmacy benefits manager for corporations and the United States government's Medicare program, says the decision will strengthen its position as a healthcare provider.
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Source


The question - am I right to assume that pharmacies in America are the same as here in Australia i.e. stores in which you have your presciptions filled and buy health related products from? If that is so, why are they selling cigarettes in the first place, in my entire lifetime I have never seen an Australian pharmacy selling cigarettes. It seems totally weird to me.
 
You get your prescriptions there, but they are also like convenience stores. You can get alcohol, children's toys, greeting cards, makeup, household cleaners, chips, etc.
 
Like Kestra said, they are basically general stores. The pharmacy is just a small area, usually toward the back. There's often a freezer section with food, snacks of various kinds, and then aisles with things like toys, hardware, greeting cards, office supplies, hygiene products, makeup, etc. etc. They're quite diverse in what they sell. Some CVS stores even sell hard liquor.

I don't know how easy it is to get cigarettes where you are, Miss Chicken, but in the US it's not hard at all. They're sold in drugstores, convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, corner shops, even out of vending machines in some places (last I checked, anyway.) You have to be 18 to buy them but it is by no means difficult to find a place selling them.
 
We can buy makeup, toys, sugarfree lollies (candy), sunglasses, suntan lotion, hygiene products etc from our pharmacies but not alcohol. No junk food either.

Edited to add - cigarettes are sold at supermarkets, corner stores, service stations (gas stations) etc but they must be kept behind the counter (one counter per store) and must not be displayed. No pharmacy in Australia would be able to get either a cigarette vendor or a liquor vendor licence.
 
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Some British pharmacies used to sell cigarettes, perhaps as recently as 20 years ago. They don't anymore though.
 
They can sell whatever they like. People looking for the products CVS doesn't sell will go elsewhere. There are plenty of retailers that sell cigarettes. But seriously, I doubt that most smokers drop by the CVS to pick up a pack.

Personally, I don't buy smokes at CVS unless I'm already there and it will save me a stop. For me, it makes little difference. I doubt it will make a difference for most smokers.

Just a thought, but I suspect that this might be for CVS to gain favor with the government. Just a way for the company to say, "Hey, we're here and on board so please don't mess with us."

We may see other retailers doing the same as this administration's reign progresses.

Just an opinion.
 
^Sounds like the British chemists, Miss Chicken. My first after-school job was as a cashier in a drug store in Toronto, with a pharmacy at the back and a large selection of cigarettes behind us cashiers in the front of the store. Without the cigarette sales the drug store probably would have had to shut down, because I remember cashing up far more cigarettes than most other items combined (the store was small and dumpy, to be blunt). In the early 1990s Ontario passed a law that stated something like cigarettes not being allowed to be sold in view inside the store, so what the store owner did was install a drive-through type window in the outside wall behind the cash registers, and that's where the cigarettes were sold. By then I wasn't working there anymore, so I never had to faff around with that.
 
Yeah, like everyone said, it's a retail outlet. Any who, I wonder if they'll stop selling beer and junk food too.
 
This is just crazy. If they won't sell cigarettes, will they still sell other first-aid supplies? Haven't they ever watched any WW-II movies? Generally you give a wounded person a smoke before you even apply a bandage.
 
gturner said:
This is just crazy. If they won't sell cigarettes, will they still sell other first-aid supplies? Haven't they ever watched any WW-II movies? Generally you give a wounded person a smoke before you even apply a bandage.
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Not to mention - how will they burn off leeches?
 
Canadian pharmacies all used to sell tobacco product but that has since changed. Right now ONLY British Columbia pharmacies sell tobacco - which is really strange because the Province of BC is associated with all things healthy, sustainable, etc. All other Candian pharmacies are tobacco product free.
 
As should be expected, the rationale is commercial [link]. That's not necessarily a criticism, because the market forces at work are encouraging the drug store to become more health-conscious in their offerings. However, when they actually get rid of alcohol sales, they can better claim the moral high ground.

WSJ said:
For CVS, the move will be costly. The drugstore chain estimates it will lose $2 billion in annual revenue from tobacco and other sundries as a result, which amounts to about six to nine cents a share this year and about 17 cents annually from next year on. CVS, with annual revenue of more than $123 billion, projects its 2014 earnings will be $4.36 to $4.50 a share.

But it is banking the strategy will give it a competitive edge over rival pharmacies in forging partnerships with hospitals, insurers and physician groups. These types of alliances are critical to drugstores like CVS and Walgreen Co. as they redefine themselves in what has been a historic downturn in prescription drug sales.

CVS sees its future in making its in-store clinics a convenient health-care alternative to long waits at the doctor's office, along with CVS pharmacists counseling patients. That strategy was increasingly at odds with racks of cigarettes, cigars and chewing-tobacco residing behind the cashier's counter, said Larry Merlo, chief executive, in an interview.
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Miss Chicken said:
I just read this

One of America's largest pharmacy chains will become the first in the country to take cigarettes off its shelves.
CVS Caremark Group says it will stop selling tobacco products at its 7,600 stores by October.
CVS, whose Caremark unit is a major pharmacy benefits manager for corporations and the United States government's Medicare program, says the decision will strengthen its position as a healthcare provider.
Click to expand...


Source


The question - am I right to assume that pharmacies in America are the same as here in Australia i.e. stores in which you have your presciptions filled and buy health related products from? If that is so, why are they selling cigarettes in the first place, in my entire lifetime I have never seen an Australian pharmacy selling cigarettes. It seems totally weird to me.
Click to expand...

That's been my argument for years. It's like seeing a cigarette machine at the doctor's office (not that we have those anymore). They sell Chantix and a pack of smokes in the same order. :)
 
That strategy makes a lot of sense considering their Caremark business. Most people may not know this but Caremark is a huge pharmacy benefit management company. So, imagine that they build up in-store clinics. That means prescriptions being written directly in the store, which will most likely be filled at the store for convenience, which means more money going through Caremark, too. It's basically a vertical market strategy, and a pretty smart one, at that.
 
urbandefault said:
They can sell whatever they like. People looking for the products CVS doesn't sell will go elsewhere.
Click to expand...

As many CVS stores are around here, there's a frickin' Walgreens about every two miles.

I'm not kidding, there are 9 of them within five miles of where I live.
 
I too saw the article, and to me as a Brit it made little sense as to why a Pharmacy store would sell cigerattes. But it's just another one of those differences that even similar cultures can have.
 
urbandefault said:
But seriously, I doubt that most smokers drop by the CVS to pick up a pack.
Click to expand...

It's a $2 billion dollar business for them, so it's nothing to shake a stick at in terms of numbers of customers buying smokes. However, it's a very small percentage of their total profits, which is part of why they're willing to take the hit in order to fully transition into a more well-rounded and consistent healthcare provider.

Also, smokers have a lot of smoking-related ailments, especially as they get older, so it was perfectly natural from a mercenary business standpoint to feed their habit after they picked up their prescriptions. But now that they're trying to be a more full featured healthcare provider with the primary care MinuteClinics, vaccinations, and diabetes testing (with in-house NPs and PAs), it's inconsistent with their more recent business model, and it drew a lot of complaints from anti-smoking advocates.

Just a thought, but I suspect that this might be for CVS to gain favor with the government. Just a way for the company to say, "Hey, we're here and on board so please don't mess with us."

We may see other retailers doing the same as this administration's reign progresses.

Just an opinion.
Click to expand...
Are you kidding? They love Obamacare. Millions of new people on insurance buying prescriptions and coming in for the quick and easy MinuteClinic services is going to be huge profits for them, which is another reason why they were willing to take the short term hit on cigarette sales.

Plus, CVS is mostly unionized with health insurance and even most non-union employees are insured, so it wasn't a huge transition for them.

Besides, the Administration doesn't penalize or reward them for stopping cigarette sales, other than supporting their decision. This is purely a market driven and business model (as an all-around healthcare provider) based decision.

Locutus, former Sav-On Pharmacy (which originally bought the small CVS "express" stores in SoCal in the early 90s, but then a large portion of the chain were bought by CVS again in 2006, so they ironically ended up owning many of their original stores) store manager during college in the 90s.

ETA: Obama quit smoking, btw, in answer to your other discussion.
 
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