--- title: Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid Urged to Follow CVS's Lead, Ban Tobacco description: In the wake of CVS' recent announcement that it would halt the sale of tobacco products in its stores that also have pharmacies, 28 state attorneys general have asked five big retailers—Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway—to follow suit canonical: https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-17T14:02:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:48:02.355Z article:section: Health og:title: Attorney generals urge retail giants to quit selling tobacco in stores with pharmacies og:description: In the wake of CVS' recent announcement that it would halt the sale of tobacco products in its stores that also have pharmacies, 28 state attorneys general have asked five big retailers—Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway—to follow suit og:url: https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f30de8824f18b27/698685c73bc999c0fc1a2605/143044152-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Cigarettes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Attorney generals urge retail giants to quit selling tobacco in stores with pharmacies twitter:description: In the wake of CVS' recent announcement that it would halt the sale of tobacco products in its stores that also have pharmacies, 28 state attorneys general have asked five big retailers—Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway—to follow suit twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f30de8824f18b27/698685c73bc999c0fc1a2605/143044152-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # States Ask Big Retailers to Halt Tobacco Sales > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 17, 2014 2:02 PM UTC  Several brands of Philip Morris cigarettes are displayed for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, April 17, 2012\. Philip Morris International is scheduled to release 2012 first quarter earnings on Thursday, April 19\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Several brands of Philip Morris cigarettes are displayed for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Tuesday, April 17, 2012\. Philip Morris International is scheduled to release 2012 first quarter earnings on Thursday, April 19\. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Daniel Acker / Bloomberg / Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Mar 17, 2014 2:02 PM UTC More than two dozen state attorneys general have [asked](http://www.ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-spearheads-national-effort-calling-major-pharmacies-stop-selling) retail giants to [follow CVS’s lead](http://time.com/4464/cvs-to-ditch-all-tobacco-products/) and halt the sale of tobacco products in stores that also have pharmacies. Attorneys general sent letters Sunday to [Walmart](http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwMzE3LjMwMTYyMTQxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDMxNy4zMDE2MjE0MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTMyMzkzJmVtYWlsaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&104&&&http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Letter%5Fto%5FWalmart.pdf), [Rite Aid](http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwMzE3LjMwMTYyMTQxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDMxNy4zMDE2MjE0MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTMyMzkzJmVtYWlsaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&101&&&http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Letter%5Fto%5FRite%5FAid.pdf), [Walgreens](http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwMzE3LjMwMTYyMTQxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDMxNy4zMDE2MjE0MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTMyMzkzJmVtYWlsaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&103&&&http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Letter%5Fto%5FWalgreens.pdf), [Kroger](http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTQwMzE3LjMwMTYyMTQxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE0MDMxNy4zMDE2MjE0MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE2OTMyMzkzJmVtYWlsaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZ1c2VyaWQ9d2VibWFzdGVyQGFnLm55LmdvdiZmbD0mZXh0cmE9TXVsdGl2YXJpYXRlSWQ9JiYm&&&100&&&http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Letter%5Fto%5FKroger.pdf) and [Safeway](http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Letter%5Fto%5FSafeway.pdf), urging them to stop selling tobacco products in stores that also sold health products. “There is a contradiction in having these dangerous and devastating tobacco products on the shelves of a retail chain that services health care needs,” the letter said. The attorney generals from 28 states wrote that they hope to usher in a “time when cigarettes simply cannot be purchased from a business that sells products prescribed by doctors.” The letter comes just a month after CVS Caremark [stopped selling tobacco products](http://time.com/4464/cvs-to-ditch-all-tobacco-products/), calling selling cigarettes “inconsistent with our purpose.” The charge is led by Attorney Generals Eric T. Schneiderman of New York and Mark DeWine of Ohio, but includes 28 states and territories including Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Utah. The letter does not threaten any legal action for continuing to sell tobacco products, but a source [told the New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/business/states-urge-retail-giants-with-pharmacies-to-stop-selling-tobacco-products.html?%5Fr=0) that there could eventually be a push for legal reforms. CVS’s decision to stop selling tobacco is estimated to cost over $1.5 billion in sales, a relatively small amount for a company that had $123 billion in sales in 2012\. But none of its competitors have shown interest in following CVS’s lead since the company announced the ban last month, despite the support of public health officials. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/"},"headline":"States Ask Big Retailers to Halt Tobacco Sales","datePublished":"2014-03-17T14:02:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:48:02.355Z","description":"In the wake of CVS' recent announcement that it would halt the sale of tobacco products in its stores that also have pharmacies, 28 state attorneys general have asked five big retailers—Walmart, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Kroger and Safeway—to follow suit","url":"https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/","keywords":["tobacco","CVS","Walmart","health","walgreens"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f30de8824f18b27/698685c73bc999c0fc1a2605/143044152-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2f30de8824f18b27/698685c73bc999c0fc1a2605/143044152-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cigarettes","caption":"Cigarettes","creditText":"Daniel Acker / Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tobacco/","name":"tobacco"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/27076/states-asks-big-retail-to-halt-tobacco-sales/","name":"States Ask Big Retailers to Halt Tobacco Sales"}}]}] ```