Why do Walgreens and Rite Aid sell cigarettes?

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NewTime
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26 Apr 2019, 10:36 am

Why do health and wellness stores like Walgreens and Rite Aid sell cigarettes?



Fnord
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26 Apr 2019, 1:04 pm

NewTime wrote:
Why do health and wellness stores like Walgreens and Rite Aid sell cigarettes?

PROFIT!!
Only this, and nothing more.


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blackicmenace
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26 Apr 2019, 1:22 pm

So they can sell you things to help you stop smoking. If corporations were people they would all be psychopaths and most would get the death penalty when they do things like paying fees for dumping harmful materials into the environment because it is cost effective to do so. Calculating cost benefit analysis, whether or not to issue a recall isn't exactly ethical, but it certainly makes business sense.


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naturalplastic
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26 Apr 2019, 2:10 pm

That.

And traditionally that's where ya go to get your cigarettes. Drugstores.

Your over the counter legal drugs come from...the DRUG store! Both medicines, and legally sanctioned addictive recreational drugs. Okay...booze and beer aren't usually sold in drug stores. But cigarettes are.



blackicmenace
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26 Apr 2019, 2:38 pm

Also, before advertising lost the battle, cigarettes were branded as being healthy and "Doctor prescribed or recommended".


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nick007
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26 Apr 2019, 3:40 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
booze and beer aren't usually sold in drug stores.
RiteAid sells beer & wine. I occasionally buy beer from there. RiteAid & Walgreens & the other similar types of stores are more than just drugstores, they're also convenience stores which may be partly why they sell cigarettes.

There was a petition like a couple years ago to get one of the big name pharmacy stores to stop selling cigarettes & the store eventually quit. I don't remember what store it was but I know it's not RiteAid. I would guess maybe Walgreens or CVS but not sure.


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naturalplastic
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27 Apr 2019, 10:24 am

nick007 wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
booze and beer aren't usually sold in drug stores.
RiteAid sells beer & wine. I occasionally buy beer from there. RiteAid & Walgreens & the other similar types of stores are more than just drugstores, they're also convenience stores which may be partly why they sell cigarettes.

There was a petition like a couple years ago to get one of the big name pharmacy stores to stop selling cigarettes & the store eventually quit. I don't remember what store it was but I know it's not RiteAid. I would guess maybe Walgreens or CVS but not sure.


CVS famously stopped selling tobacco products a couple of years ago. Didn't realize it was a response to pressure. But that's probably the chain you're thinking of. The OP is so young that he takes it for granted that a big chain like CVS doesn't sell cigarettes, and it seems odd to him that the other drugstore chains DO sell them. But to me it just seems natural to go to the drugstore "for a pack of cigarettes".

But apparently tobacco is dying a long slow death. Retail chains often outsource their inventory counting these days to companies like what I work for. We go in and physically count their stuff.

While finishing counting cans of soda in a cramped back of a 7-11 I over heard the store's manager (the stereotypical Indian/Pakistani 7-11 proprietor) going over his figures with HIS boss. His boss calmly explained to him that "in most years your bad numbers would be rescued by your tobacco sales. But nowadays you cant rely on that ...tobacco is an ever shrinking part of your sales...". On one hand I felt sorry for the guy (the hard working store manager) getting screwed, but on the other hand I was glad to hear how we Americans are now consuming dramatically less tobacco then in years past, and that its still trending downward.



blackicmenace
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27 Apr 2019, 12:04 pm

Tobacco may be losing the war in the US and some other countries, but they are as strong as ever in other countries where regulations are relaxed.


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Dan82
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27 Apr 2019, 10:02 pm

As I recall from my AP US History flashcards on Brainscape, the New England colonies were having a really hard time until they started growing tobacco, meaning tobacco had a history in the US of keeping things up economically. It was a cultural thing--growing it used to be subsidized, etc. It's hard to just cut it out of the culture now.



mr_bigmouth_502
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27 Apr 2019, 11:23 pm

Drugstores here aren't allowed to sell tobacco, and that includes stores that contain a pharmacy like Safeway or Walmart. Stores not containing pharmacies do sell it, however.


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naturalplastic
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28 Apr 2019, 10:51 am

Dan82 wrote:
As I recall from my AP US History flashcards on Brainscape, the New England colonies were having a really hard time until they started growing tobacco, meaning tobacco had a history in the US of keeping things up economically. It was a cultural thing--growing it used to be subsidized, etc. It's hard to just cut it out of the culture now.


The New England colonists floundered until they stumbled upon fishing for cod (the Pilgrims came over from England to worship God, but ended up worshipping the cod). And it was their contemporaries in Jamestown Virginia who were floundering until they hit upon growing and exporting tobacco. I think that is what you're thinking about. Though I believe that there IS a type of tobacco grown in Maine (its exclusively for that brown outer covering of cigars) if I remember from my gradeschool social studies.

But yes. Five hundred years ago the Europeans discovered America, and Indians were introduced to alcohol, and Whites were introduced to tobacco. And today the leading cause of death on Indian reservations is alcoholism, and the leading cause of death among White Americans of European descent are things like lung cancer, and emphesema.



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28 Apr 2019, 10:53 am

blackicmenace wrote:
Tobacco may be losing the war in the US and some other countries, but they are as strong as ever in other countries where regulations are relaxed.



Well that sure makes me proud!

To learn that Uncle Sam is just a drug pusher! :roll: