Stop & Shop is the latest grocery retailer to stop selling cigarettes as retailers increasingly highlight the health risks of tobacco and the hassle involved in selling it.
Starting Saturday, customers will no longer be able to buy tobacco products in the 360 stores of the supermarket chain based in Quincy, Massachusetts. The chain is following the example of other major retailers such as Walmart, CVS and Wegmans.
Retailers say that selling cigarettes not only raises health concerns, but also regulatory and unprofitable issues, and that they are often targeted by shoplifters.
In 2019, the federal government raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21. Some states have even stricter restrictions, including Massachusetts, where retailers with pharmacies do not allow the sale of tobacco products.
In 2014, CVS became the first major pharmacy chain to stop selling tobacco products.
Other retailers continue to sell them, including Publix, Albertsons and Kroger. Costco began phasing them out in 2016 but still sells cigarettes in some markets. Target was the first major chain to ban cigarettes from its stores, starting in 1996.
As part of its phase-out, Stop & Shop is offering customers in three communities with high rates of tobacco-related health problems, including Staten Island, incentives to quit smoking by offering them gift cards and discounts on Nicorette in exchange for unopened packs or cartons of cigarettes.
“Our responsibility as a grocer extends far beyond our shelves, and we are committed to taking bold steps to help our associates, customers and communities work toward better health outcomes,” Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a statement.
The decision to exit the tobacco business is a delicate one for major retailers like Walmart, which decided in 2019 to downsize in some of its stores as it becomes a bigger player in the healthcare space.
But the world’s largest retailer is initially withdrawing from only a few markets, including stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
Around 780 million people worldwide want to quit smoking, but only 30 percent have access to the necessary resources, according to the WHO.
During the pandemic, the number of smokers increased for the first time in 20 years, which some experts attributed to a federal tax on e-cigarettes.
