Stop & Shop has become the latest grocer to stop selling cigarettes as retailers increasingly cite the health risks of tobacco and the hassles of selling it.
As of Saturday, customers will no longer be able to purchase tobacco products from the Quincy, Mass.-based supermarket chain’s 360 stores. The move follows the lead of other big retailers including Walmart, CVS and Wegmans.
Along with health concerns, retailers say cigarettes are a hassle to sell because of regulations, are not profitable and are frequently targets of shoplifters.
In 2019, the federal government raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21. Some states have even greater restrictions, including Massachusetts, which doesn’t allow retailers with pharmacies to sell tobacco products.
In 2014, CVS was the first major pharmacy chain to stop selling tobacco.
Other retailers continue to sell it, including Publix, Albertsons and Kroger. Costco began phasing it out in 2016 but still sells cigarettes in some markets. Target was the first major chain to yank cigarettes from its stores starting in 1996.
As part of its exit, Stop & Shop is incentivizing its customers in three communities with high smoking-related health issues — including Staten Island — to quit by offering them store gift cards and discounts on Nicorette in exchange for unopened pack or cartons of cigarettes.
“Our responsibility as a grocer goes far beyond our aisles, and we are committed to taking bold steps to help our associates, customers, and communities work towards better health outcomes,” Stop & Shop president Gordon Reid said in a statement.
The decision to drop tobacco is fraught for some big retailers like Walmart, which made a decision to cut back in some of its stores in 2019 as it becomes a bigger player in health care.
But the world’s largest retailer is only pulling out of some markets to start, including stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Worldwide, about 780 million people want to quit smoking, but only 30% have access to the tools to do so, according to data from WHO.
During the pandemic, smoking increased for the first time in 20 years, which some experts blamed on a federal tax on vaping products.
