'Show or Go ?'

Many folks are handing out 'kudos' to CVS Pharmacy for its decision to remove tobacco products from its shelves. CVS now joins my personal 'Retailers Hall-of-Fame Club.' More on that later.


First, here are a few things that I cannot filter in this aging brain. First, why does a chain store have the autonomy to decide that cigarettes will not be sold in their stores while an individual restaurant owner cannot decide to allow smoking in his place of business. This seems to be a simple reminder of the "Goose & Gander Story." Tobacco users who frequent CVS will now need to go elsewhere for their nicotine fix...and I am certain they will; I doubt many will quit smoking because CVS does not sell cigarettes any longer. On the other side of this coin, why not expect the non-smokers to dine elsewhere?
Someone once suggested that I pay attention to decisions because you can often categorize the decision as either  'show or go;' I think we can all agree the category for the CVS edict. Let's acknowledge that the CVS removal of tobacco products from their stores is a public relations (show) move. CVS claims the move is in the best interest of their customers' health. If that's the CVS moral mission then CVS should remove all excessive sugary items, i.e., candies and soft drinks, which feed to our nation's obesity, diabetes and heart problems.


I recall another decision made in the mid-sixties by a gentleman who owned and operated a Drug Store in Assumption, Illinois. Hafner's Drug Store offered the prescription drugs and other items one might imagine on the shelves of a pharmacy. Well, one exception, Mr. Hafner was a devout Roman Catholic who made the decision not to sell any birth control products. He once told me that my wife and I should 'rhythem-method' as any good Catholic.' When I told him I was NOT Catholic, he said, he was sorry; I did not bother to ask what his 'sorry' inferred.





Mr. Hafner would roll-over in his grave if he knew that it is estimated that 98% of Catholic women use birth control, today.