CVS sharpened its focus on customer health Wednesday by following through with its long-promised cigarette ban and officially changing its names to CVS Health, the Associated Press reported.
The cigars and cigarettes that used to fill the shelves behind store cash registers have now been replaced with nicotine gum and signs urging visitors to give up the tobacco habit.
CVS Caremark, now officially known CVS Health, has placed the tobacco ban in effect immediately on its roughly 7,700 drugstores. "The sale of cigarettes and tobacco at CVS pharmacy stores ends today," said Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS, in a video statement on the company web site. "By eliminating the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products in our stores, we can make a difference in the health of all Americans."
Earlier this year, the tobacco-free pharmacy chain had announced that it would be the first major pharmacy chain to stop selling cigarettes at all its stores, CNN Money reported. Prior to the companywide ban, the chain sold cigarettes at all but two stores in San Francisco and dozens of stores in Massachusetts, in compliance with local anti-tobacco ordinances.
Although the ban was supposed to take effect by Oct.1, they have stopped selling cigarettes nearly a month earlier than expected.
Meanwhile, "CVS and other drugstores have delved deeper into customer health in recent years, in part to serve the aging baby boom generation and the millions of uninsured people who are expected to gain coverage under the federal health care overhaul, according to the AP. While competitors Walgreen Co. and Rite Aid Corp. still sell tobacco, they've all started offering more health care products and added walk-in clinics to their stores while expanding the care they provide."
While many of their clinics are offering services to help monitor chronic illnesses like diabetes or high blood pressure, drugstores are now also providing an array of vaccinations and flu shots. "We're doing more and more to extend the front lines of health care," CVS CEO Larry Merlo said
The nation's second-largest drugstore chain has estimated on losing about $2 billion in annual sales by phasing out tobacco. However, it's just a fraction of its revenue, which totaled $126 billion in 2013, and will probably be countered through growth in healthcare services such as walk-in clinics and prescription drug coverage.
