The days of being able to go to Walmart to buy a pack of cigarettes is coming to an end.
Walmart announced on Monday that they will stop selling cigarettes in some of their stores throughout the United States, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Smokers in California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico have begun to see the removal of cigarettes at their local Walmarts, according to people visiting the stores, per The Wall Street Journal.
The retail giant has continued to sell cigarettes much longer than some of its competitors, as Target stopped selling them in 1996. The drugstore chain CVS Health also ended the sale of cigarettes in 2014.
It's no secret that cigarettes sales have been declining in the United States for years, although, sales rose in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cigarettes sales then declined by 5.5% in 2021, according to Altria Group, Inc., the makers of Marlboro.
Instead of where shoppers would normally find cigarettes in Walmart they can now expect to see self-checkout registers, along with snacks and candy in that section.
"We are always looking at ways to meet our customers' needs while still operating an efficient business," a Walmart spokeswoman said to the Wall Street Journal. She did not mention a specific number of stores that will stop selling cigarettes, but made it clear the company isn't ending all tobacco sales completely.
According to the Federal Trade Commission's Cigarette Report in 2020, there were 203.7 billion cigarettes sold in the United States, as Walmart and other similar retailers were responsible for 14% of those sales, according to Euromonitor. Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog said in a note to the Wall Street Journal that Walmart individually covers about 5% of U.S. cigarette sales.
Most people purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products at gas stations or convenience stores, and will have to continue to do so if Walmart stops selling them in their area.
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