Walmart ending cigarette sales in some locations: report

Walmart is planning to end the sale of cigarettes at some of its stores, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Sources familiar with the matter told the Journal that cigarettes were set to be removed from several locations, including some stores in California, Arkansas, Florida and New Mexico. In place of where the cigarettes would normally be kept, Walmart is apparently setting up more self-checkout registers with grab-and-go items.

According to the Journal’s sources, the decision to transition away from selling tobacco products was made before the COVID-19 pandemic. Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon has reportedly urged other executives for years to find a way to stop selling tobacco.

“We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business,” a Walmart spokesperson told the Journal, though she declined to say how many stores would stop selling cigarettes.

The Hill has reached out to Walmart for further comment.

Walmart is not the only major retail chain in the U.S. to stop selling tobacco. Retail competitor Target stopped selling cigarettes in 1996. In 2014, CVS Pharmacy announced it was ending the sale of tobacco at its more than 7,800 location at the time.

A CVS-backed, peer-reviewed study published in the American Journal of Public Health less than three years after the chain stopped selling tobacco found that some consumers stopped buying tobacco products instead of altering their buying habits.

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 health care industry.

Cigarettes tend to be less profitable than other products like candy and are operationally complex, as employees who sell cigarettes must be above a certain age.