Some CA Walmart Stores To End Cigarette Sales

CALIFORNIA — Some Walmart stores in California and across the nation will soon stop selling cigarettes, the company announced.

The decision to oust cigarettes from the retail chain will be made on a store-by-store basis, largely dependent on the store and its particular market, the company said Monday.

"We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business," Walmart said in a prepared statement.

Wall Street Journal was the first to report the development Monday. It noted some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico were on the list, citing anonymous sources and store visits.

Walmart is proceeding with the decision despite the massive amount of revenue tobacco sales typically bring in.

CVS Health and Target also previously ended cigarette sales. As a result, CVS Health sales in areas outside the pharmacy fell for a few quarters after it pulled tobacco products, and the company had predicted that missing tobacco products would hurt annual earnings by 7 to 8 cents per share.

Overall revenue has grown every year at CVS, however, after a number of acquisitions and changes to its stores bolstered the company’s health care offerings. CVS Health bought the health insurer Aetna in 2017.

Health officials say that cigarette smoking causes about one of every five deaths in the U.S. each year.

Walmart Inc., based in Bentonville, Arkansas, announced in 2019 that it was getting out of the vaping business and would stop selling electronic cigarettes at its stores and also at Sam’s Clubs. It said at the time the decision was based on “growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.