Walmart Inc will stop sales of tobacco products in some of its more than 5,000 stores across the United States, the world’s largest retailer said on Monday.
The markets in which cigarettes are being removed from stores include Arkansas, California, Florida, and New Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
“We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business,” a spokesperson for Walmart said. “As a result of our ongoing focus on the tobacco category, we have made the business decision to discontinue the sale of tobacco in select stores.”
In place of where the cigarettes would normally be kept, Walmart is apparently setting up more self-checkout registers with grab-and-go items.
Walmart’s attempt to get out of selling tobacco products is not new, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the decision to transition out of selling tobacco products was made before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon has reportedly urged other executives for years to find a way to stop selling tobacco, according to The Hill.
Retail competitor Target stopped selling cigarettes in 1996. In 2014, CVS became the first U.S. drugstore chain to take cigarettes off the shelves, while Walmart halted the sales of e-cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery products at its U.S. stores in 2019, according to Reuters.
CVS’s decision came after it changed its corporate name to CVS Health to reflect its focus on health care. According to those who spoke to the Journal, Walmart was also similarly motivated to drop tobacco as it seeks to become a larger player in the healthcare industry.
