To go along with its new name, CVS Health, the former CVS Pharmacy discontinued the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products as of Wednesday.
The new name is intended to reflect CVS Health’s commitment to the well-being of its customers, according to a company press release.
In addition to halting the sale of tobacco products, CVS Health is offering a new smoking cessation program to help smokers quit.
Cigarettes, rolling papers and chewing tobacco no longer line the shelves behind the store’s registers. Instead signs read, "Let’s quit together," and products designed to help people quit, like Nicorette, are on display.
Although the company no longer sells tobacco products, customers who haven’t heard the news yet are still going to CVS Health stores hoping to buy them.
Ashlei White, a 23-year-old sales associate at a Gainesville CVS Health store, located at 901 N. Main St., said within an hour of getting to work on Wednesday, two people came in wanting to buy cigarettes.
"There are still people who don’t know that we don’t sell tobacco products, but we just don’t have that here anymore," she said.
Alex Barshel, a 21-year-old UF environmental science senior, said she doesn’t smoke but thinks CVS Health has the right to sell, or not sell, what it wants.
"You can get cigarettes anywhere," she said. "There’s a drug store on every corner."
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/4/2014 under the headline "CVS rebrands to promote health"]
