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Recently, CVS decided that it would be in the best interest of its consumers if they were to ban all tobacco products including one of the most popular used drugs, cigarettes. This is huge considering the amount of sales being shaved off their monthly/yearly revenue rates; nearly amounting to 2 billion dollars a year it seems a lot worse simply because research and stats also show that since cigarettes are no longer being sold, complementary good such as mints or gum are also not being sold as much simply because people are not choosing to come to CVS because of the lack of drugs.
In my opinion, this is a rather controversial decision simply because both sides are right and wrong. Ethically it is a big step for CVS to choose not to sell something that brings so much business and it really shows how much they value their customers’ lives by choosing not to sell the cancer-causing drug. However, you can’t help but wonder whether they are doing more harm than good for their own business. $2 billion is a large amount and this raises the question of how much profit is enough? Where is the line between ethics and maximum profit and where do you draw it.
CVS did do the right thing, however, ethically and I believe that in time this is something that will be looked upon as a good thing, as opposed to the way it’s frowned upon slightly simply because it’s not the wisest business decision; but I wonder if other large stores like Wal-mart will follow this trend, or thrive off the fact that they are potentially earning more sales than their competitor?