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Walmart Inc., a leading retail company in the United States, said that it would no longer sell cigarettes in some of its stores in the country. It was noted that the decision comes after years of debate among the company's management team regarding whether they will discontinue the selling of tobacco products or not.
According to Reuters, some of the Walmart outlets that will end the sale of cigarettes are those in Florida, New Mexico, Arkansas, and California. This information has been shared by people who have visited the stores recently as well as those who are familiar with the matter.
It was reported that the company also introduced new designs for its self-checkout registers where instead of the Marlboro, Newport, and other cigarette brands, candies and grab-and-go food are on display near the front of the stores.
This means that Walmart is now able to install more self-checkouts since the tobacco products have been removed. This is because there is no need to regulate checkouts without cigarettes.
Moreover, at Walmart stores, it was reported that compared to other retail items, the company is not really making lots of sales for tobacco products, and this is due to the fact that the cigarettes are being kept in locked cabinets, and customers must ask staff to get it whenever they buy. This is to control who buys since minors are not allowed to have them.
At any rate, according to The Daily Mail, a number of tobacco companies experienced a decline in stock in early-morning trading on Monday after Walmart's decision to stop the sales of cigarettes made the news. Marlboro's producer, Altria Group, saw its stock dropping by 1.6 percent in pre-market trading, while British American Tobacco's stock plummeted by 2.11 percent.
Finally, Walmart removed all e-cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery products from its shelves in 2019 due to the growing regulatory uncertainty. The company's 4,700 stores all stopped selling these items, and it followed CVS retail company's move to stop the sale of cigarettes in 2014. The pharma
