Last year, CVS underwent some changes. In addition to changing its name to CVS Health, it stopped selling cigarettes in all of its nearly 8,000 stores nationwide. The company paired this with programming in its pharmacies and MinuteClinics designed to help customers actually quit. According to its website, CVS is confident that “this is the right thing to do.” This type of corporate responsibility is powerful, and hopefully other companies will follow suit.
The move was supported by President Obama, who lauded CVS in his 2015 State of the Union address. Obama even went so far as to invite the president of CVS, Larry Merlo, to the speech as one of the White House’s special guests.
CVS didn’t have to stop selling cigarettes. It made what could have been an unpopular and fiscally damaging decision because its corporate leadership had the guts to do what it thought was right, a decision that students against smoking should actively support. In fact, CVS estimated it would lose up to $2 billion — 3 percent of total annual revenue — from the decision to stop selling cigarettes. And no one was pressuring the company to take tobacco off its shelves.
Smoking among adults in the U.S. is on the decline, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And I bet that almost all of the smokers left understand the risks.
It’s hard to find places to smoke in Rhode Island. The state has a ban on smoking in any enclosed workplace, and as of March 11, smoking will be banned in all of Providence’s parks. It would have been easy for CVS to watch the decline of smoking in America from the sidelines.
I don’t want to demonize smoking. Individuals have a right to use tobacco if they so choose. They should be aware of the health risks, and their ability to threaten the health of others through secondhand smoke should be limited.
But longterm smoking costs our nation in terms of lives cut short: The CDC states that cigarette smoking is the cause of one in five deaths in the U.S. And in terms of dollars spent on our health care systems, the government should take a role in discouraging the use of tobacco.
But there are limits to the government’s power to sway consumers away from tobacco. Government discouragement is usually a combination of education about the risks and bans on smoking in public places — plus that omnipresent Surgeon General’s warning. CVS has the freedom to do far more, and the money to do it.
Over the last several years, CVS has tried to market itself as more of a one-stop health care provider, rather than simply a convenience store with a pharmacy attached. There is obviously market incentive here, but with its now roughly 900 MinuteClinic locations and army of pharmacists and nurse practitioners, CVS is able to offer basic health care cheaper and faster to many people who might not ordinarily get it.
Large companies like CVS play a huge role in the lives of many Americans. Decisions that they make have a huge impact on what we do by regulating what we buy and at what cost. It’s inspiring to see a corporate giant like CVS shift its policy and put potential revenue on the line in an attempt to promote healthy living and better serve customers. It didn’t have to; It wanted to.
Cynics will claim that in the end, the company’s removal of cigarettes was all part of a bigger rebranding to help pivot toward the health care market, and that any corporate do-gooding is a farce or facade. I disagree. I don’t care if CVS was motivated by potential profits or a facelift for its image. The company is taking loud, visible steps to promote better health among customers. It isn’t just selling the nicotine gum next to Marlboro reds; It’s only selling nicotine gum.
Other critics might argue that smokers will be undeterred and just buy elsewhere. They would be wrong. CVS reported that since it changed its policy and adopted its “Let’s quit together” programs, it has seen a more than 60 percent increase in visits to its clinics for counseling and medication for smoking cessation.
Demonstrations of corporate responsibility like this are so powerful because they combine rhetoric with action. I urge other students to take note of which companies they buy from: What are those companies doing to make a difference?
CVS is not just offering to help you quit. It also won’t help you keep smoking. It’s not hiding behind its profit projections; it’s taken a stand. And you know what? Its profits increased by almost 10 percent between November 2013 and November 2014.
If you believe, as I do, that Brown students are for a smoke-free Brown, as Kate Kiernan ’16 asserted in her Herald column (“Ban Smoking at Brown,” Feb. 20), then support CVS. The company is doing more to promote a smoke-free campus than anyone else on College Hill.
For CVS, it pays to be the good guy. I don’t use a lot of groceries, but the next time I need some toilet paper or laundry detergent, I’m going to go to the CVS on Thayer Street instead of the other guy, because I support what it’s done.
Walker Mills '15 can be contacted at walker_mills@brown.edu.
