Why Walgreen Won't Stop Selling Tobacco Like CVS Health

CVS Health (CVS) rival Walgreen (WAG) isn’t going to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products anytime soon.

Walgreen certainly has myriad financial reasons to keep selling cigarettes. It is faced with cutting costs as it consolidates various functions in its merger with European drugstore giant Alliance Boots. It decided against an “inversion” and will keep its headquarters in the U.S. There have been reports the ousted top finance executive made a major financial reporting error that cost the company more than $1 billion. And this morning, Walgreens reported “customer traffic in comparable stores decreased 1.7 percent” in August.

But Walgreen isn’t using financial excuses as a reason it won’t stop selling cigarettes in its official corporate statement issued following CVS’ announcement that all tobacco products were removed from store shelves.

Rather, Walgreen doesn’t seem to think retailers are to blame for Americans wanting to continue to smoke. But they can be a solution even while selling tobacco, according to a lengthy statement the company made in response to reporter inquiries about CVS’ removal of all tobacco products yesterday from store shelves.

“We believe that if the goal is to truly reduce tobacco use in America, then the most effective thing retail pharmacies can do is address the root causes and help smokers quit,” Walgreen said.

“With about 250,000 retail establishments selling tobacco products in America today, retail pharmacies comprise only 4 percent of overall tobacco sales,” the company’s statement continued. “As a result — as many health experts and even a recent doctor survey have noted — a retail pharmacy ban on tobacco sales would have little to no significant impact on actually reducing the use of tobacco. Our goal is to help get the U.S. smoking rate, which has leveled off at around 18% of the adult population for a decade, moving lower again. ”

CVS, however, points to another study it touted in its arsenal of public relations’ materials preceding the announcement about its name change to CVS Health and its removal of cigarettes a month ahead of schedule. CVS said “enactment of policies policies to eliminate the sale of tobacco products at retailers with pharmacies in San Francisco and Boston was associated with up to a 13.3 percent reduction in purchasers of tobacco products.”

Both companies are stepping up promotion of their smoking cessation programs.

Walgreen will just offer the effort to quit while selling tobacco.