DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens could be the next retailer to stop selling cigarettes, its CEO hinted at Wednesday.
Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Roz Brewer said in an interview that aired during CNBC’s virtual Health Returns Summit that discontinuing cigarette sales “is something that you’ll hear us talk about and make some announcements about in short order,” Bloomberg reported.
Brewer previously said tobacco sales were under scrutiny at the drugstore chain as the organization focuses more on healthcare. Cigarettes are linked to about 480,000 deaths in the country each year, U.S. health officials said.
It’s a topic that shareholders have been asking Walgreens about for a while, Brewer said, according to Bloomberg.
Walgreens wouldn’t be the first retailer to drop cigarettes.
Walmart, Bentonville, Ark., recently said it would stop selling cigarettes in some of its 4,700 U.S. stores. CVS stopped selling tobacco products in 2014.
Even tobacco companies are starting to move away from the combustible business. Philip Morris International (PMI), for example, is aiming to be a majority smoke-free company in terms of net revenues by the end of 2025.
Convenience stores represent about 75% to 80% of cigarette sales in the United States, according to a research note from New York-based Goldman Sachs Managing Director Bonnie Herzog.
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