America’s largest drugstore chain has vowed to stop tobacco sales for good; effective October this year. CVS Caremark begins to morph the company towards becoming a health care provider. Tobacco defies that ideology. According to the article, CVS is said to “shave an estimated 2 billion in sales from customers buying tobacco and tobacco related products”. (1) Although 2 billion may appear to be a large sum, in actuality the company looses less than 1% of their generated profit. Business ethics come to mind, large corporations such as CVS is often under the watchful eye of society. This forces companies to act morally and often always promotes the company executives to come up with a plan that will attract positive media attention; such as CVS’s tobacco ban. Not only does this shows the public that profit is not the mere concern, it allows these companies to set a ‘newly improved’ standard, forcing others to follow closely behind. Looking now at Freeman’s stakeholder theory, in order for CVS to continue to be profitable, they must create value for their customers. America’s new trend is health, thus the demand for the opposing, such as tobacco, will fall. As Freeman said “the ideology that each one of these groups (customers, stakeholders, financiers, etc.)  can together create something that not one alone can”, (2) is crucial in creating a profitable and successful business.

(1) The Social Responsibility of Businesses: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/docDetail.action?docID=10187339&page=171

(2) Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory: https://www.youtube.com/embed/bIRUaLcvPe8 

Above Photo: NY Times