# Is it weird to you that pharmacies sell cigarettes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 18, 2016, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304 "2016-09-18T21:35:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/41 "2016-09-19T17:04:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > There’s actually a pharmacy-only business around here. The only items they have out for sale are OTC drugs; the rest is a prescription counter. They stay in business because they’re the only place that compounds medicines to order, so if your doctor prescribes a dosage that’s out of the ordinary, people have to go there. It’s also a neighborhood pharmacy and a lot of people go there instead of CVS, which is about a two-minute drive away. > > But, ultimately, a “Pharmacy” is the name of the type of business, not a description. The one we use is like that. They also sell (off the floor!) wheelchairs, walkers, standing easy chairs and other medical equipment ( grab bars, commode chairs) or they can order anything you need. They even have hospital type bandaging materials. And they deliver. ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/42 "2016-09-19T19:19:12Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > What the… I have not ever seen that in any Pharmacy around these parts. I live in the Seattle area. You can buy beer/wine/liquor in the drugstores and grocery stores here. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/43 "2016-09-19T21:41:43Z")
No, but I find it pretty disturbing that they sell alcohol at gas stations. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/44 "2016-09-19T22:22:57Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > The _pharmacy_ doesn’t sell cigarettes, the front checkout counter does. Every drug store I’ve been in (CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Duane Reade, etc) has a separate medical pharmacy inside the store. The pharmacy is but a small part of the entire store. Exactly. If you’re going to call Walgreens, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies, you may as well call Wal-Mart, Meijer and Kroger pharmacies. There may be pharmacy departments, but the stores themselves aren’t pharmacies. Maybe they started as strictly pharmacies, or that was their initial emphasis and calling them pharmacies just stuck, even as their inventory expanded to include other things. My mother used to say, “I can pick that up at the dime store this weekend.” It took me years to figure out she meant variety store, because I couldn’t find a store where stuff cost a dime. I guess that’s what most people called stores of that nature when she was a kid. I would classify a lot of today’s so-called “pharmacies” as variety stores maybe, or, as some have said, convenience stores. Need a light bulb, a gallon of milk and some ex-lax? Head to Walgreens. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/45 "2016-09-19T23:37:19Z")
> [@Periwinkle](#): > > I live in the Seattle area. You can buy beer/wine/liquor in the drugstores and grocery stores here. Alcohol at supermarkets is common here (Australia) just not in pharmacies, where they seem to have either regulations or some unspoken guidelines for what they can carry. Though cigarettes are so heavily regulated they probably couldn’t do it very easily even if it didn’t contradict their principles of promoting good health. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/46 "2016-09-19T23:43:30Z")
Last time I checked, using tobacco does not, in fact, guarantee that you will get cancer and die. I mean, we will all eventually die of something, but the idea that having smoked in your life is a guaranteed death sentence and that tobacco is the devil’s weed is a little bit of an over-reaction. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/47 "2016-09-19T23:58:36Z")
> **[CVS banned tobacco. Now its sales are hurting](https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/04/investing/cvs-earnings-cigarettes/)** > > Sales at CVS took a tumble last quarter after the company stopped offering cigarettes and tobacco products at its stores. CVS said they were going to stop selling cigarettes , according to link it looks like it hurting their sales. I guess people will buy other items when they run into buy a pack of cigarettes . ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/48 "2016-09-20T00:05:53Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > My mother used to say, “I can pick that up at the dime store this weekend.” It took me years to figure out she meant variety store, because I couldn’t find a store where stuff cost a dime. I guess that’s what most people called stores of that nature when she was a kid. I would classify a lot of today’s so-called “pharmacies” as variety stores maybe, or, as some have said, convenience stores. Need a light bulb, a gallon of milk and some ex-lax? Head to Walgreens. There used to be something called the “Five and Dime.” I don’t know if it was a name of an actual chain at one time, or just what people used to call what we now call “convenience stores,” or “Dollar stores.” I’ve known people who also called them “Notions,” because apparently in 40s-70s era department stores, the department that was that catch-all for everything that people needed frequently, but didn’t neatly fall into one of the other departments, was called “Notions.” There’s also a word you hear in New York, but not much outside there (you’d think you’d hear it in Texas and the West coast, but I haven’t), and it’s “bodega.” Those are kinda like dollar stores with extended grocery departments. They sell fresh produce, but they’re still pretty small. People who don’t own cars in NYC stop at the bodega a couple of times a week on the way home from work, then maybe twice a month shlep a rolling cart on a special trip to a mega-mart and bring a crapload of stuff home on the bus. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/49 "2016-09-20T01:06:20Z")
Surprised, in that they purport to promote health. Not surprised, in that they’re drug retailers. _shrug_. Life’s strange. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/50 "2016-09-20T01:13:39Z")
If I get alcohol at Walgreen’s, I am well aware of potential consequences but I am choosing to buy it there because I don’t want to make a separate trip. Same with tobacco if I smoked. Or maybe I need a bottle of 40% ethanol for disinfecting purposes and the easiest way to get it happens to say “Smirnoff” on the side. Meanwhile they are selling [del]jars of expensive water[/del] homeopathic remedies and Airborne as legit, and people are buying them expecting to be cured. Sometimes they’re not even clearly marked, so you’re wasting money even if you know it’s woo. > [@SanVito](#): > > However, I went into a Walgreens in San Francisco last week and can certainly see that it’s much more of a convenience store than our average pharmacy. I went in there to buy a public transport pass, which I wouldn’t do in Boots. SF banned tobacco (not sure about alcohol, I think not) in drug stores well before CVS or anyone else did. One thing I noticed almost 10 years ago was that Walgreen’s in California were less likely to sell alcohol than Long’s (now swallowed by CVS). Of course I now live in a state where I can buy booze at 5:30am at any place that is open, so these other rules seem weird to me. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/51 "2016-09-20T02:08:00Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I also thought CVS dropped cigarettes from their stores. They did but I am not sure all stores participate in the ban today. > **[CVS stops selling tobacco, offers quit-smoking programs](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/03/cvs-steps-selling-tobacco-changes-name/14967821/)** > > The chain will change its corporate name to CVS Health. and this on the results > **[CVS banned tobacco. Now its sales are hurting](https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/04/investing/cvs-earnings-cigarettes/)** > > Sales at CVS took a tumble last quarter after the company stopped offering cigarettes and tobacco products at its stores. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/52 "2016-09-20T03:21:33Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > wow all of ours quit selling cigs 2 or 3 years ago … I remember when target decided to quit selling cigs… almost as as bad as the bathroom controversy t n-n here in … I worked at Target in the early 1980s, and we sold cigarettes by the carton, and later by the pack too when the laws changed. Never had to ID anyone either. Anyway, one day a man walked up to my lane and asked me where the chewing tobacco was. (Insert vomit smiley here) I said, “We don’t sell that here” and he pointed at the cigarettes and said, “You sell those filthy things, but you don’t sell chewing tobacco?” :rolleyes: Nope. When I worked at the grocery store pharmacy, we had an unofficial rule that we wouldn’t ring up cigarettes, which that store did sell. Most of them were rung up at the service desk, where they were sold out of in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/53 "2016-09-20T03:29:10Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Basically the modern chain pharmacy is a combination of: > > 1. The traditional pharmacy > 2. A replacement for the old variety store (Kresge, Woolworth…) > 3. A convenience store (except no gasoline) My BFF worked for a while at a mini Walmart. I forget exactly what they are called; they are springing up in parts of the Midwest and could best be described as a Walgreens with a gas station. The pharmacy is, of course, farthest from the entrance, which encourages people to buy other stuff while they’re there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/54 "2016-09-20T03:31:05Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > No, but I find it pretty disturbing that they sell alcohol at gas stations. Ever seen liquor stores with drive-through windows? :eek: THAT, I find disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/55 "2016-09-20T03:33:01Z")
p.s. CVS took over all of Target’s pharmacies within the past year or so. :mad: It’s as awful as it sounds. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/56 "2016-09-20T03:39:37Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > No, but I find it pretty disturbing that they sell alcohol at gas stations. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Ever seen liquor stores with drive-through windows? :eek: THAT, I find disturbing. You’re going to drive the alcohol home. Why does it matter where you buy it? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/57 "2016-09-20T04:03:41Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > My BFF worked for a while at a mini Walmart. I forget exactly what they are called; they are springing up in parts of the Midwest and could best be described as a Walgreens with a gas station. The pharmacy is, of course, farthest from the entrance, which encourages people to buy other stuff while they’re there. 😃 Probably they were Walmart Express–and Walmart closed them all down this year: [http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-to-close-walmart-express-stores-as-part-of-reorganization-2016-01-15](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-to-close-walmart-express-stores-as-part-of-reorganization-2016-01-15) The Walmart Express stores were 12,000-15,000 square feet. They are continuing with the neighborhood Walmarts averaging 42,000 square feet, as well as the much larger supercenters. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/58 "2016-09-20T19:41:23Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Ever seen liquor stores with drive-through windows? :eek: THAT, I find disturbing. :eek: indeed. But no, I haven’t seen that. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/59 "2016-09-20T19:44:47Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Ever seen liquor stores with drive-through windows? :eek: THAT, I find disturbing. I sometimes buy beer from a drive-through beer distributor. Cases of beer are heavy. It’s actually nice to drive in, tell the guy what I want, have him load it in the back of my Jeep, pay, leave. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304/60 "2016-09-21T00:35:55Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > :eek: indeed. > > But no, I haven’t seen that. How are drive-through liquor stores any different than driving to a liquor store, buying what you want inside, and then driving it home. You’re still driving away with the liquor, only thing that’s changed is how it gets into your car. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-weird-to-you-that-pharmacies-sell-cigarettes/766304.md?page=4)