CVS Health Survey: Tobacco Ban Not Likely to Cause Many Losses

CVS is in the process of rebranding its image to be more health-conscious. Under its new name, CVS Health, the stores will no longer sell cigarettes or tobacco products. This will likely lead to some losses for the chain, but it expects those losses to be minor. How many people will be affected by the tobacco ban at CVS stores? And what do people think of it from a business standpoint?

Cigarette Buyers

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 29% of respondents said they often shop at pharmacies or drug stores. 44% said they sometimes shop at pharmacies or drug stores. 21% said they rarely shop at these types of stores. And just 7% said they never do. But even though these stores are pretty popular, just 4% of respondents said they often buy cigarettes from pharmacies or drug stores. 11% said they sometimes buy cigarettes from these stores. 15% said they rarely buy cigarettes from these stores, or they have bought them there in the past. And 70% of respondents said they’ve never bought cigarettes from pharmacies or drug stores.

CVS Health

More specifically, 57% of overall respondents said they think it is a good idea for CVS to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco products in their stores. 14% think it is a bad idea for CVS to discontinue the sale of cigarettes in its stores. And 28% were undecided or had no opinion.Overall, 60% said that the change will not impact how often they shop at CVS. 13% said they will actually shop at CVS more often because of the ban, while 8% said they will shop there less often and 4% said they will stop shopping there altogether. The remaining 16% said they never shopped at CVS to begin with.

Health Issues

In general, 33% of respondents said they are very concerned with health related issues such as tobacco use. 49% said they are somewhat concerned with health issues. 13% said they are not very concerned with health issues. And 6% said they’re not concerned with health issues at all. Those who claim to be concerned about health issues were 4% more likely to approve of CVS’s tobacco ban.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: CVS Pharmacy from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on September 4 via AYTM’s online survey panel.