What do people think about CVS's decision to end sales of tobacco products by October 2014?

CVS is a privately owned business and can choose to sell or not sell pretty much whatever it likes.   They probably expect to make out quite nicely on the basis of the free advertising they've gathered and will gather due to their decision, and that may offset some of the loss in business as smokers will now tend to stop at the local gas-station shop or convenience store to pick up that gallon of milk, bag o' chips, and liter of soda while buying a pack of cigarettes. Of course by reducing the number of licensed outlets selling cigarettes, the decision will probably result to some degree in an increase in black market sales -- which means making cigarettes more easily available to children without age-IDs since illegal vendors are unlikely to care about such niceties.   And increasing the black market also makes more money available to organized crime while reducing the government's tax-take.  I haven't seen any mention in the news stories of CVS showing any concern about such possible effects though. Some people see the CVS decision as a "moral" one about "selling death products" and such, but that view kind of ignores the store's profits from sugar-laden sodas and candies displayed right at childs'-eye-level by the cash registers or the profits that they make from the brightly colored, lavishly displayed, and often candy-flavored nicotine gummy products that some kids like because they give a neat buzz and don't require an age-ID.   Perhaps CVS could show its morality by putting the sodas, candies, chips, and NicoGums behind closed opaque cabinet doors -- dispensed only to customers upon demand. Welll.... those are *my* thoughts on the decision... - MJM