Business model

Toss ’em if you’ve got ’em

HOW ABOUT this free market? The big retail news this past week might have pushed even inflation off the front of the Business section: Walmart—a brand you might have heard of—has decided to take cigarettes out of some of its stores. Emphasis on “some.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that cigarettes are going to be removed in “various markets,” including some stores in California and

Florida and New Mexico. And Arkansas.

“Walmart,” the paper said, “is removing tobacco products from select locations where the retailer has decided to use the space more efficiently.” A rep for the company wouldn’t say exactly how many stores are getting rid of the smokes, and said Walmart hasn’t made a decision to stop selling all tobacco products.

The move sounds like a pilot program to gauge customer reaction. Which companies do often.

This is interesting for a variety of reasons—and not just because Walmart is an Arkansas company. (In Sherwood, there is a Walmart Neighborhood Market next to a giant Walmart super-center. They are building them next door to each other in some counties. And people flock to them.)

But what about the decision to give cigarettes the heave-ho? Doesn’t this take the decision to smoke out of the hands of the individual? Who is Walmart to be the morality police? Packs of cigarettes are legal products, and until they aren’t any longer, consumers should be able to get them. Right?

Perhaps to a point. Others of us lean toward a company’s right to sell what it pleases. Nearly a half-million people die every year from tobacco use in this country alone, according to statistics. And if Walmart is getting more and more into the healthcare business, why not follow other companies (like Target and CVS) in tossing the cigarette business?

And even if it were for PR reasons alone—and health care, reputation and morality had nothing to do with it—shouldn’t Walmart be free to handle its business as Walmart pleases? At least in deciding what legal product it sells.

Also from the Journal story: “As with tobacco, Walmart has pulled back on sales of firearms in recent years after similar internal discussions. It raised the age to purchase guns to 21 after the 2018 high-school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and discontinued sales of ammunition used in semiautomatic weapons and handguns after a 2019 shooting at Walmart in El Paso, Texas.”

Doubtless the cigarette business will be okay, as long as there are smokers and gas stations. Even marijuana can be bought legally now.

But Walmart isn’t required to sell it.