Stop & Shop, a grocery chain with 360 stores in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, will stop selling cigarettes as of Saturday.
“Stop & Shop aims to support the health and well-being of the neighborhoods we serve — and this exit from tobacco is one more way we’re accomplishing that goal,” Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid said in a release Monday.
Stop & Shop joins nationwide chains CVS, which halted all tobacco sales in 2014, and Target, which stopped selling such products in 1996, according to CNN.
Wegmans, a regional grocery chain with stores in North Carolina, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, stopped selling tobacco in 2008.
Other retail chains such as Walmart and Costco still sell tobacco in certain parts of the U.S. Walgreens and stores under the Albertsons and Kroger umbrellas also are selling tobacco products, according to CNN.
Anti-smoking advocates applauded the decision by Stop & Shop.
“This is a step in the right direction toward ending Big Tobacco’s influence on kids, and we know even more can be done to reduce the toll of tobacco in our communities,” American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen said in the Stop & Shop release.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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