Dive Brief:
- Stop & Shop intends to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at all of its locations by Aug. 31, the grocery chain announced Monday.
- The supermarket operator also plans to hold cigarette buyback events later this month at a pair of stores that are in areas where smoking and smoking-linked health problems are more prevalent.
- Stop & Shop is joining retailers including Walmart, CVS and Target that have also taken steps to remove cigarettes from stores.
Dive Insight:
Stop & Shop is positioning its decision to remove tobacco products from its shelves as a way to underscore its ties to the communities where its stores are located, highlighting that it also offers resources to help people stop smoking and learn about nutrition.
The Ahold Delhaize-owned retailer pointed in its announcement to data released in December 2020 by the World Health Organization showing that less than a third of people who want to quit smoking say they have access to tools designed to help them accomplish that goal. Around 780 million people around the world who smoke indicate that they want to stop doing so, according to the United Nations agency.
“Our responsibility as a grocer goes far beyond our aisles, and we are committed to taking bold steps to help our associates, customers, and communities work towards better health outcomes,” Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a statement.
The retailer plans to offer financial and other incentives to shoppers who turn in cigarettes at the buyback events, which will take place on Aug. 28 at stores in Boston and New York City. The first 100 shoppers at each of the two Stop & Shop stores scheduled to run the events will receive a gift card and an assortment of healthy snacks along with smoking-cessation materials.
The grocery chain’s efforts to distance itself from smoking follow Walmart’s announcement in March 2022 that it was removing cigarettes from selected stores in several states following internal conversations about the move that spanned several years. CVS stopped selling cigarettes at its retail locations in 2014, and Target ended cigarette sales in its stores in 1996.
Stop & Shop’s initiative comes as the company proceeds with a plan to close 32 of its approximately 400 locations by the end of 2024 in a bid to improve its financial performance.
