Will supermarket chains choose selling cigarettes over medications?

[BMBiology]

Small regional supermarket chains with a pharmacy like Ralphs, Vons, etc are also being pressed to stop selling cigarettes. We all know they dont make much money from their pharmacies (may even be in the red). Are they going to choose the tobacco business over pharmacy business?

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[Rockinacoustic]

Small regional supermarket chains with a pharmacy like Ralphs, Vons, etc are also being pressed to stop selling cigarettes. We all know they dont make much money from their pharmacies (may even be in the red). Are they going to choose the tobacco business over pharmacy business?

Look at the bigger picture. Your pharmacy dept may be losing money on free antibiotics and anti-diabetics, but chances are most of their customers are dropping money on food and supplies while they wait.

All cigarettes do is tie up your customer service people.

 

[Lnsean]

Will people take responsibility for their own decisions ? I guess not.

 

[Sparda29]

If I owned a pharmacy, I'd probably sell tobacco and booze. Then again, my pharmacy would also have the old fashioned soda fountain and you'd be able to get fresh burgers, fries, and milkshakes.

If said pharmacy was in Washington or Colorado, you could even keep a dispensary up front.

 

[zelman]

...If said pharmacy was in Washington or Colorado, you could even keep a dispensary up front.

If you have a DEA controlled substance license, it would be unadvisable to risk that. You are in a business that will occasionally involve federal agents.

 

[Sparda29]

If you have a DEA controlled substance license, it would be unadvisable to risk that. You are in a business that will occasionally involve federal agents.

Open one next door. Have a family member run it.

 

[samuricool]

If said pharmacy was in Washington or Colorado, you could even keep a dispensary up front.

Not legal, passed last year.

 

[Jibby321]

If I owned a pharmacy, I'd probably sell tobacco and booze. Then again, my pharmacy would also have the old fashioned soda fountain and you'd be able to get fresh burgers, fries, and milkshakes.

If said pharmacy was in Washington or Colorado, you could even keep a dispensary up front.

Lets go into business sparda. We could have home delivery done by hooters girls. The name of the pharmacy would be "drugs and jugs"

Anyone want to invest some initial capital?

 

[BMBiology]

"More than two dozen attorneys general sent letters on Sunday to five of the country’s largest retailers, encouraging them to stop selling tobacco products in stores that also have pharmacies, which would follow the example CVS Caremark set with its announcement earlier this year that it would stop selling such products in its drugstores.

The letters were sent to Rite Aid, Walgreen, Kroger, Safeway and Walmart, five companies that are among the biggest pharmacy retailers in the country."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/b...es-to-stop-selling-tobacco-products.html?_r=0

 

[Dred Pirate]

If I owned a pharmacy, I'd probably sell tobacco and booze. Then again, my pharmacy would also have the old fashioned soda fountain and you'd be able to get fresh burgers, fries, and milkshakes.

If said pharmacy was in Washington or Colorado, you could even keep a dispensary up front.

so true - IF I owned a pharmacy - which I will never do, it is all about the bottom line - booze makes big $$. My first job was in a chain retail - the store's profit looked like this:
Pharamcy - 40%
Booze 30%
Greeting Cards 10%
Everything else 20%