Walmart Pulls Cigarettes From Select Retail Locations

After years of debate, Walmart has decided to pull cigarettes from stores throughout California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico.

While the retailer did not reveal how many stores would be affected by the decision, it noted that it would not be exiting the category entirely.

The move to pull the product from select locations follows CEO Doug McMillon’s challenge to company executives “to find a way to stop selling tobacco, without demanding that the company do so,” as well as calls from several Democratic U.S. senators.

While Walmart is the largest retailer in the U.S., its decision to pull cigarettes from retail store shelves at select locations is unlikely to have a significant impact. According to Goldman Sachs Managing Director Bonnie Herzog, Walmart’s cigarette sales roughly represent less than 5% of the total cigarette industry volume.

“Overall, we believe this decision will have no impact on tobacco manufacturers as smokers will still purchase cigarettes, and they will simply go to other retailers such as convenience stores, dollar stores and tobacco shops,” said Herzog.

“We believe c-stores will be the biggest share gainers as they already represent approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of cigarette sales in the U.S. today.”

The decision comes eight years after pharmacy retailer CVS decided to take cigarettes off the shelves, becoming the first U.S. drugstore chain to so do.

More recently, in 2016, Costco pulled tobacco products from the majority of its stores. Walgreens also made a move to de-emphasized tobacco.

The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the news.

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on March 29, 2022.