Walmart is discontinuing cigarette sales in some stores after years of debate within the retail company’s leadership ranks about the sale of tobacco products, according to several news reports.
Cigarettes are being removed in various markets, including some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico, according to the people and store visits. In some of these stores, Walmart has rolled out a design with more self-checkout registers, as well as other items such as grab-and-go food or candy sold near the front of stores in place of Marlboro, Newport and other tobacco products, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
Walmart has rolled out a design with more self-checkout registers and other items such as grab-and-go food or candy near the front of the stores in place of Marlboro, Newport and other tobacco products, the Journal reported.
CVS in 2014 became the first U.S. drugstore chain to take cigarettes off the shelves, while Walmart halted sales of e-cigarettes and electronic nicotine delivery products at its U.S. stores a few years later due to growing regulatory complexity and uncertainty.
Several Democratic U.S. senators have urged Walmart and several other retailers to stop selling all tobacco products.
