Walmart Will Stop Selling Cigarettes in Some of its Stores

Walmart announced that it will stop selling cigarettes at some of its 4,700 US locations. It is not the first national retail chain to cut off the sales of cigarettes but is the largest. Target also ended cigarette sales in 1996, and the drugstore chain CVS Health stopped the sales of cigarettes in 2014.

Walmart has said in a statement, “We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business.” The retail chain comes after an internal debate at Walmart about selling the product as the retailer aims to expand its footprint in health services. 

Most of the country's $95 billion cigarette sales last year came from gas stations and convenience stores, with Walmart and other mixed retailers accounting for about 14% of cigarette sales.

CVS has earlier predicted that missing tobacco products would hurt annual earnings by 7 to 8 cents per share. Yet the overall revenue of the company grew every year at CVS. However, after some acquisitions and changes to its stores expanded its health care offerings.

Walmart announced in 2019 that it was getting out of the vaping business and would stop the sales of electronic cigarettes at its stores. It also said that the decision was based on growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity.