The giant (RI based) CVS pharmacy chain has decided to stop carrying tobacco products, because they’re betting big on “primary healthcare delivery” (their MinuteClinics) as more people can afford to stay healthy, and fewer customers are buying cancer sticks anyway. The corporation has hardly been secretive about their market strategy; this was the top article on Boston’s Ch5 website (couldn’t find a video link that didn’t autoplay):
BOSTON —CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide as it focuses more on providing health care.
The nation’s second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost about $2 billion in annual revenue but won’t affect its 2014 earnings forecast.
CVS Caremark leaders say removing tobacco will help them grow the company’s business of working with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve customers’ health…
Less than 4 percent of retail cigarette sales come from drugstores like CVS and Walgreens.
The share of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically since 1970, from nearly 40 percent to about 18 percent…
So: There’s more money in selling health, less money in selling addiction. Blessed be the Invisible Hand! Except (as pointed out by commentor Trollhattan, among others) the bold Free Market objectivists at Fox News are losing their meagre moiety of marbles over this offense against tobacco-loving Amurkin FREEDUMB. Brian Powell, at Media Matters:
… On Fox’s The Real Story, host Gretchen Carlson approached the CVS decision with suspicion and a remarkably uninformed premise, asking, “Is it OK legally … to restrict tobacco availability in a private store like this?” She questioned her guests as to whether they would continue shopping at CVS and observed that, “For people who smoke, you know, they have a right to buy cigarettes. It’s not illegal.”
On Your World, Fox host and VP Neil Cavuto noted that President Obama supported CVS’ decision, and speculated that CVS was “getting scaredy cat” because “with the health care law and the changes and everything else,” selling tobacco products “didn’t look good.”…
And on Fox’s The Five, co-host Dana Perino tried to use the decision to attack President Obama’s signature health care law, saying, “I just wonder, is this President Obama now saying that corporations are allowed to have values and express them? Because if that’s the case, maybe corporations then don’t have to provide contraceptive care to their employees or their health plans. And the Supreme Court justices might want to think about that.”…
Video clips at the link, for those with strong stomachs. Reminder, for those keeping score, that would be ex-Dubya-press-secretary Dana Perino. If this were RedState, I could exhort you all to send Fox rolls of duct tape, but (a) you’re smarter than Erickson’s Trike Farce Strike Force, and (b) I’m not on the kickback grift.
Baud
Fox’s shtick isn’t even that interesting anymore.
brettvk
They take seriously the studies that show their viewers are less accurately informed of the world than someone who consumes no news programming whatsoever. So they know they can spit out any bullshit that bobs to the top of their heads and spin it into a 7-minute segment. Why should they work hard?
cathyx
I’m surprised that they make more money selling health than vice.
Fox pushes the opposition to anything from the left, no matter what it is. It doesn’t have to make sense.
GregB
It’s like they are proud of their ignorance.
Mnemosyne
A lot of people don’t realize that CVS is in the home healthcare business in a big way, and is now trying to get into the regular healthcare business as well with those Minute Clinics (which I can’t believe hospitals hadn’t thought of yet — basic care 7 days a week on a walk-in basis? What a concept!)
Also, I suspect they saw some kind of writing on the wall, because San Francisco and nearby cities had already banned drugstores from selling cigarettes, so it’s easier for them to drop them now and get good PR than try to fight it as the dominoes fall in California and other cities do the same. Unlike Walgreen’s, which paired up with Philip Morris to try and get the ban overturned.
ShadeTail
Right-wingers: corporate whores until the corporation does something they don’t like.
Ken
Contraception’s legal too. So I guess that means Fox is against those pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions because of religious objections.
srv
Some people in the Bronx haven’t had potable water for ten days.
What is Obama doing about that holocaust?
Yastreblyansky
Wow, bakers must have freedom to refuse to bake cakes for people they disagree with, but drugstores can’t refuse to sell deadly poison to people who want to take poison. I’ll never understand how these people think.
cathyx
@Ken: No. Because the left is for contraception. See my #3.
kc
Get the fuck out, she can’t be that stupid.
Can she?
kc
Is it even legal for CVS to refuse to sell “Penthouse?” Because, you know, people have a right to buy “Penthouse.”
Ash Can
So Fox News is catering to a demographic made up of people who are 1) white, 2) elderly, and 3) tobacco users?? Now that’s some impressive long-term strategerizin’, there…
PurpleGirl
CVS has gone for automated self-checkout in a big way. But you have to keep a person behind the cigarette counter because cigarettes have to be given to a person (because of age of the buyer and all that). As I see it getting rid of cigarettes means they can get rid of one more counter person.
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@kc:
‘Specially the pre-born. That last trimester gets might tedious without a little “reading” material handy.
brettvk
@kc: I thought the selling point for the Fox newsbabes was that they were both smart and bootylicious. OTOH, Ailes hired Palin and still has her on. The thing is, the viewers can’t tell when Carlson is saying something dumb.
jl
As I said in a previous thread, the Fox dingbats seem to think Obama made CVS stop selling smokes, rather than it being their own business decision.
So, it was kommandant Obama’s orders that took the Big Hunks (edit, I mean the candy bar, you jokers…) out my local CVS? Thanks Obama!
I also thank Dana Perino for pointing out that if weren’t for dictator Obama’s arbitrary dictate, CVS true values were being expressed when they sold cigarettes, that addicted people so that it was almost impossible to quit, and then gave them heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and killed women during delivery and messed up their kids. Thanks, Obama!
maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor
@kc:
She’s certainly smart enough to know exactly what kind of reasoning is going to keep that sweet, sweet Murdoch cash flowing into her checking account.
Ian
@kc:
Sometimes it’s a debate between whether they are that stupid or if they just read the script in front of them. The question she asks is “Is it legal for a private store to discontinue a kind of product?”
Answer- Yes. Its all in that magical free market thing they talk so much about and know so little of.
Christopher Bird
@brettvk: do her lips move? That’s how I tell when she is being dumb. There may be other occasions, but that will do for starters.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
That hasn’t hit Southern California CVSes yet. It’s big at the grocery stories (which do still sell cigarettes) but not at the drugstores.
I try not to use the self-checkouts, partly because I think clerks should be able to keep their jobs, and partly because for some reason I suck at checking myself out. I always manage to do something that clogs the whole machine up and requires the attendant, like, three times when I only have two items to check out. I’ll do it if, say, I’m picking up cookies for the office before work and just have the one thing to check, but otherwise the gremlins in the machine just love to screw with me.
jl
But if the Fox News people are right, then every convenience store and ph_rm_cy, and gas station quick stop food store in CO and WA has to sell dope! It’s legal, so they HAVE to sell it. Unless dictator Obama picks on them, just because.
I’m a gonna make a trip to research this issue asap.
Mustang Bobby
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: In some cases, it was someone reading “Penthouse” that got the pre-born to be pre-born, amirite? (wink, wink, nudge nudge, chortle)
WereBear
I have never believed in Cleek’s Law as much as I do now!
WaterGirl
This is actually great news! Now I won’t have to shop at 3 different grocery stores because only one of them carries my brand of kitty litter, another carries my favorite salsa, and another has the best produce department.
I will just have to announce to all three stores that it’s illegal for them not to carry everything I want to buy. Off to put my list together…
raven
@WaterGirl: Go to Hueys.
Mustang Bobby
So, along the same lines, according to these geniuses, it’s Freedom! to boycott Disney for promoting Gay Days, but tyranny to boycott Chick-Fil-A for being sniveling gay-bashing bigots.
Um, what?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, I think they’re right. It’s against the law for a business not to sell tobacco. That means that all businesses must sell tobacco or they’re breaking the law. Great. If you have a shoe store and you don’t sell cigars as well, you’re just asking to be thrown in jail. If you’re a doctor, well, you’re a business, so if you don’t sell cigarettes to the people who come to you with emphysema, you’re breaking the law, too.
I guess the next thing these Fux clowns will be asking is whether we’ll be breaking the law if we choose not to buy tobacco.
jl
@Mustang Bobby: Thanks. I never realized that it is so pro-life to sell soft P 0 r N, and its legal. All retail outlets must sell girlie magazines. It would give me something better to read waiting in line than that garbage in Us, and People, and suchlike.
kc
@jl:
Oh, good God.
Well, I see no harm in promoting this notion. “Obama doesn’t want you to smoke! Show him he’s not the boss of you!”
gene108
Gretchen Carlson was the 1989 winner of the Miss America pageant and graduated cum laude from Stanford.
Megyn Kelly is a lawyer, with over a decade of experience practicing law.
Fox “News” does not hire stupid blondes. They hire very smart, attractive women, who know what side their bread is buttered on and will say and do what it takes to get ratings; they are shameless people, who have sold their souls for a few dollars more.
JoyfulA
Also, CVS is said to be aiming at fully automated stores. I don’t see how that meshes with the MinuteClinics, unless the MinuteClinic person takes your credit card for the candy bars while there’s no one waiting for a flu shot.
kc
@kc:
“Obama wants to stop you from running with scissors!”
jl
@WaterGirl: Yeah. Damn straight. I’m going around with my list of girlie magazines all stores with my custom must sell, If they don’t get on it, I’ll call the cops.
Anne Laurie
@kc:
To paraphrase Mark Twain, Show me where a woman gets her paycheck, and I’ll show you where she gets her opinions.
Her viewers, on the other hand — they have to be that stupid. Or, from the Fox viewing stats, that far along the Alzheimers curve…
Roger Moore
@Yastreblyansky:
They don’t.
kc
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I demand to know why beer isn’t sold in Christian bookstores.
muddy
@kc: The teahadis I know buy their cigs online from Israel of all places. I’m sure it must be illegal.
Cacti
@Mnemosyne:
My feeling on them has always been, if I’m not getting a discount, what’s the benefit of scanning my own stuff?
JoyfulA
@PurpleGirl: What I said later about automation. I should have read the comments first.
gene108
@kc:
Considering Obama there’s no solid proof Obama has actually quit smoking, other than seeing him chewing a piece of Nicorette gum in public, I think the meme would be “Obama keeps smoking cigarettes on the tax payers dime, while he denies cigarettes for the American people”.
MikeJ
@muddy:
I can assure you that tax evasion is illegal.
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
It’s supposed to be that there are no lines at the self-checkout, so you can get in and out of the store faster, but now there always seems to be a line there (at least in the evening), so that benefit is gone.
For some reason, Vons (Safeway) is way more enthusiastic about self-checkout than Ralphs (Kroger). They only have a couple of checkouts open at a time and basically force you to do self-checkout unless you want to wait in a long line. Ralphs seems to have the same number of checkstands open as they always did, so their self-checkout actually is pretty convenient if you have one or two items and just need to go.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Mnemosyne: Let us not forget that self checkouts are designed specifically to deprive someone from a job. That is the simple premise. If all grocery stores and all other big box stores go to self checkouts the devastating impact on employment in the US would be catastrophic. Call me stupid but I like the fact that the cashier opens my box of eggs and checks that they are not broken, I like the fact that if a package of neck bones that I have bought for my dogs appears to be broken she points it out. I like dealing with a human.
jl
@kc:
” I demand to know why beer isn’t sold in Christian bookstores. ”
They might even get some business from me from time to time.
muddy
@MikeJ: I’ve found the “patriots” do very little that is legal.
Mike in NC
Damn. Next thing you know CVS will announce it will no longer sell assault rifles.
jl
@gene108:
“[Obama] chewing a piece of Nicorette gum in public, ”
Or…. was it CVS (!) nicotine gum, ehhh?
This is gonna make the Christie GWBridghazipocalypsegate look like tiddly winks. The next obama giga-crisis!
kc
@Anne Laurie:
It pains me to think American voters are watching that crap and believing it.
Joseph Nobles
Jesus God Almighty.
Anoniminous
You can’t make this stuff up.
karen
@gene108:
Obama quit smoking two years ago. What “solid” proof do you need? What “solid” proof would be enough, an X-Ray of his lungs? An autopsy, which is what I’m sure Fox, the GOP and some people on this list would be super happy with?
Target stopped selling tobacco products in the 90s with nary a whimper.
SatanicPanic
@Cacti: No kidding, that’s a job and I’m not going to do it for free.
Roger Moore
@Anoniminous:
Sure you can. If you pay attention to their reactions for a while, you can start predicting what insanity they’ll come up with. You just have to know a few basic rules- bad and Democrat go together, good and Republican go together, and what kinds of things count as good and bad- and you can start making up all kinds of crazy. That’s why Poe’s Law works.
Cassidy
I don’t use self checkouts. If it’s late at night and no registers are open then I get the manager to do it or walk out.
Roger Moore
@karen:
The right wing is considerably noisier and crazier today than they were back then.
ruemara
I have a super dumb, OT question for car types. I finally found a potential car to
laden my aged parents with debt and move into when I am homelessprovide safe transportation so I can embetter myself and find work. But is 162k miles very high for an 14 year old vehicle in good condition? It’s a little high to me, but it is a Honda, but it’s also an SUV. I have no idea how people do this car shopping thing on a regular basis.Culture of Truth
Fox News hosts don’t smoke on the air.
.
.
.
.
.
OMG…. Obama got to them!!!!!
Jebediah, RBG
@Mnemosyne:
Fuck self checkout… I won’t do it. I agree with you – cashiers should get to keep their jobs.
Culture of Truth
I love car shopping. Last time I did it it was addictive. I kept it up for a year.
I think 162K is high but not that high for a Honda. Hopefully you’re getting a good deal.
Also find out the history, work that’s been done, replacement parts, what’s new, battery, tires, etc.
Culture of Truth
@gene108: Proof is irrelevant.
Jebediah, RBG
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
Yes! I’m just another working stiff. I don’t want to participate in all that job loss. And I prefer the interaction, which I think we get less of these days already.
Origuy
The CVS stores around here sell alcoholic beverages; in California those cannot be sold through self-checkout. Before the law was passed, you could go through self-checkout and the one person watching a half dozen stations would ok it. Now it has to be handled by a real checker.
Jebediah, RBG
@ruemara:
It’s more likely to be OK if they have the service records and did stuff like oil changes regularly. Will they let you have a mechanic check it out before you commit to it?
Burnspbesq
@kc:
Why not?
ruemara
@Jebediah, RBG: I’d say so. Because I wouldn’t even think of buying a car that wasn’t checked out.
@kc: These Fox News Blondes are multi-taskers.
Eric S.
@ruemara: 162k / 14 years = 12k per year. That’s roughly average. Hondas tend to be very reliable but that is a lot of miles no matter what. I could list out things to check but my best suggestion is to have an independent mechanic inspect it before purchase. Any reputable seller should agree to an inspection. You will need to front the inspection costs but it is entirely worth the money and effort.
jharp
@Cacti:
I always scan my groceries at self checkout.
I am kinda funny about how my food gets handled. And I am very particular about my bread.
That said. I keep the checkout monitor pretty busy handling my fuckups and incompetence.
jharp
@Origuy:
“The CVS stores around here sell alcoholic beverages”
The CVS store in my local town sells a TON of alcohol. We joke about about it being the liquor store.
Botsplainer
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
I like talking to the cashier, too. Hate self-checkout.
jheartney
@Litlebritdiftrnt: If you read Kevin Drum, one of his hobbyhorses is that every job that can be automated will be, and as AI gets better the number of non-automated jobs will dramatically decrease. I happen to think we’ve already passed the point at which, due to automation, the economy can no longer provide sufficient jobs for the full labor force, and that this will just get worse with the passage of time. For example, once we get large-scale self-piloting vehicles on the roads, say goodbye not just to shipping and delivery jobs, but also to lots of jobs currently tied to a physical location, i.e. retailing. You’ll make your purchases via net and see them delivered to you in hours if not minutes by deliverbot.
The answer to the unemployment this will cause won’t be to continue having humans do the automatable jobs. It’ll have to involve finding a way for all that automated productivity to support non-employed people. Hopefully we won’t need a revolution to get from here to there, but at the moment no one wants to face the implications of the current trends.
Steve in the ATL
@ruemara: Hondas last a really long time, but the weak link is the transmission. Have that checked out before you buy it.
jheartney
@ruemara: I have a 1995 Honda with just under 100k miles than runs great. No, you can’t have it.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
Unless it’s a ripping good deal I’d walk. That’s a lot of miles and even with a thorough inspection it’s not easy to find out which of the car’s many systems are reaching their service life limit–there could be several. Also, too, if you live in snow-salt country that’s a LOT of miles–I’m coming from a California perspective where cars tend to last a long time.
Gian
so fox is demanding that CVS carry pot in WA and CO too?
I mean it’s legal
people have a right to buy it…
Gex
These people who are suspecting that it violates people’s rights not to get smokes at CVS have an absolute hard on for the frequently proposed religious “protections” laws that would allow businesses to refuse to serve gays altogether if they offend the religious beliefs of the people who work there. So, for the billionth time, fuck those guys.
ruemara
@trollhattan: I’m in CA too and unless there’s a crazy mad epidemic of kids dropping snow cones, no snow here.
It’s running just under $6k, which is just $2k over my high limit. Which seems to be a good deal according to KBB.
namekarB
Gosh, what will a healthy CVS do next? Drop the candy bars and alcohol and start dispensing medical marijuana?
Joseph Nobles
@Botsplainer:
The trend may not be toward self-checkout. It’s not in the new Kroger they put into an old hardware store close to me in Dallas. They have a row of express line checkouts that cashiers can dash in and out of. We all get in one line and it keeps moving.
Mnemosyne
@Joseph Nobles:
Some companies have found that most of their customers don’t like self-checkout, so they’re switching back, so there are some signs that the pendulum is swinging back in the opposite direction.
trollhattan
@ruemara:
Got it. Well, if it’s been properly serviced (there might be records) and the mechanicals (drivetrain, cooling, HVAC, exhaust, brakes) and electronics check out healthy, it might be worth a go. I’d also want to know about the suspension, down to the bushings and bearings. Our freeways are pretty horrid and tend to bash the snot out of suspensions.
No single big repair will be terminal to most wallets but a host of medium-size ones sure can be.
karen
@Gex:
Silly Gex, unless cigarettes were suddenly sanctioned by the bible, stores have no right to not carry it.
? Martin
@Joseph Nobles: I think it depends a great deal on how the self-checkout is implemented. I don’t like the ones in most stores. I do like Apple’s implementation – take a picture of the barcode, use my thumbprint to authorize, and leave. No weighing the item to make sure I’m not stealing, no stupid interface that asks if I want to pay with 9 different mechanisms that I don’t possess.
I don’t know if I’d buy groceries with that kind of interface – it doesn’t scale up well, but for a small number of items, it’s much better. Look at how much square footage is dedicated to the payment gauntlet – registers, lines, etc. I’d rather have that many more products to choose from, and not be subject to the checkout scrum to be honest.
xian
@Mnemosyne: it’s long been speculated that the future of healthcare as we approach universal coverage in the US is not just the dread doctor shortage but smarter use of nurse practitioners, pharmacies, and walk-in clinics.
xian
@Jebediah, RBG: and fuck self-service gas station pumps!
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
The banks were able to convince us to switch by increasing the convenience (making ATMs available 24/7, not having to go to the bank to make deposits, etc.) Self-checkout of a cartload of groceries is never going to be as convenient as putting them on the belt and letting someone else check them out. One or two items, yes, but trying to self checkout a week’s worth of food for a family of four is a giant pain in the ass for everyone, and less efficient for the store, to boot.
Mustang Bobby
@ruemara: That’s a lot of miles even for a Honda, and while most cars built in the last twenty years or so can go 100K miles without a major overhaul, major parts of the drivetrain tend to wear out about that time. Also, if the tires are more than five years old, you’re going to need new ones pretty soon no matter how much wear they have on them.
Interrobang
Wait… Drug stores in the US (can) sell cigarettes?! You folks live in a bizarre country.
(Up here in Soviet Canuckistan, that’s been illegal for about as long as I can remember, and I’m pretty sure before that a lot of drug stores voluntarily didn’t carry them. Grocery stores generally don’t, either, unless it’s one of those fancy ones with a like separate little boutique “smoke shop” inside it.)
boatboy_srq
@ruemara: If that were a Civic or Accord, I’d say go for it once you went through the maintenance history and made sure it got its regular maintenance. The honda SUVs (CR-V? Passport? Pilot?) are a different breed, and not all are strictly Honda beasties (the Passport was a joint venture with Isuzu IIRC and was their version of the Rodeo – and I don’t know how well Isuzu product holds up with that kind of mileage). Make sure the transmission and alternator have been replaced (they tend to go at about 100K) and that the timing belt was replaced at 75K and again at 150K (every 75K is the rule for those). Other than that, if it’s in decent running order, you should have another 40K before you have to do much to it.
boatboy_srq
@Interrobang: US “drug stores” carry everything but guns and Schedule 1 pharmaceuticals these days – and I’m willing to bet some wingnut has some 2nd-Amendment-based petition to make them carry guns too because wingnuts read that statement as”A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringedwill be required of all residents.”Glocksman
@boatboy_srq:
Have you seen the shirts popular on the right that say ‘The ATF should be a convenience store, not a government agency’?
Now that it’s the BATF&E, I’m sure more than a few would like to pick up some dynamite at their local 7-11 too.
Jebediah, RBG
@xian:
I can’t think of a single full service station anywhere around me. Back home, there was one that did keep full-service long after it seemed to be gone almost everywhere else.
Jebediah, RBG
@efgoldman:
I have direct deposit because I am given no choice at this job. When given a choice, I take a check instead of direct deposit.
Are you saying because those other jobs were lost, I should just give in and start using self-checkout? Look, we might be losing the job-loss war, but where I have the option, I will try to do what little I can. (e.g. I pay most of my bills with a mailed check rather than online – someone’s got to deliver that mail, and someone’s got to open it.)
Howlin Wolfe
@maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor: Prenatal wanking!
thalarctos (not the other one)
Coal is perfectly legal, yet CVS obstinately refuses to stock it. Something must be done about this!
FIght for your right to anthracite!
pseudonymous in nc
@Interrobang:
As a not-American, the very concept of pharmacies selling cigarettes seems utterly whacked-out to me in the first place. It’s bizarre to see liquor on the shelves of Californian drug stores; it’s fucked up to see ciggies.
DavidTC
@jheartney:
For example, once we get large-scale self-piloting vehicles on the roads, say goodbye not just to shipping and delivery jobs, but also to lots of jobs currently tied to a physical location, i.e. retailing. You’ll make your purchases via net and see them delivered to you in hours if not minutes by deliverbot.
Yeah, a lot of people seem to have not noticed that ‘self-driving cars’ also includes ‘self-driving units roughly the size of kitchen tables, that will be used to deliver pizzas to you’. Perhaps it parks in your driveway, or perhaps it has a smaller ‘walking tray’ with legs that detaches and comes up to your front door.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if those were legal before cars with people in them, because they’re not risking the life of people in them, and thus because they need no safety features, you can make them so light that they’re nowhere near as dangerous as real cars. A two hundred pound kitchen table that rams a car is unlikely to cause any serious injuries.
I have no idea why Amazon has decided to focus everyone on flying drones, which is just absurd. There are going to be drones, alright, and they’ll be driving merrily down the roads.