TAMPA, Fla. — This could be a game-changer when it comes to the number of people who smoke in Florida. Walmart, the nation’s biggest chain store retailer, recently announced it would stop selling cigarettes in many of its stores.
Health workers hope it might encourage other retailers to follow suit and encourage smokers to quit. That includes Raquel Perez, who says she’s been smoking for about 30 years.
Like most smokers, Perez says she knows it’s bad for her, and acknowledges the price of her unhealthy habit just gets more expensive.
“They’ve gone up multiple times through the years, and I still smoke,” she said.
Money might just be the motivator that finally gets smokers like Perez to quit.
Walmart, which stopped selling e-cigarettes in 2019, says it’s now ending cigarette sales in several stores throughout California, Florida, Arkansas and New Mexico.
“Maybe,” Perez said. “If it went everywhere [at] that price I might. Come to the point I can’t afford it anymore, I might consider it, yeah.”
At Tobacco Free Florida, they know some people addicted to nicotine will find other places to buy cigarettes.
“Stopping the habit of smoking is super hard and it takes a lot of work,” said Cleopatra Buabeng with Tobacco Free Florida. “So, that’s what we are here for.”
But they might also find them to be more expensive than Walmart and harder to find.
“Limiting the access for people who are currently smokers so that it’s harder for them to get and maybe encouraging them to take that first step and quitting” could provide that extra motivation, said Sabrina Arancibia with the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County.
Walmart isn’t the first big retailer to clear its shelves of tobacco products. Target did it in 1996 and CVS did the same in 2014. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 13 in every 100 adults in the U.S. smoke. While that amounts to nearly 31 million people, the number, says the agency, is at an all-time low.
Walmart had also raised the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21 in recent years. Its Sam’s Club stores have also stopped selling cigarettes at most locations.
Health workers hope Walmart’s decision encourages other retailers to do the same and encourages its cigarette customers to call it quits by taking the retail giant up on its slogan to save money and live better.
“It’s hard quitting tobacco, but you can do it,” Buabeng said. “And we’re here and we will cheer you on while you quit.”
Here are some of the resources listed with the Florida Department of Health and Tobacco Free Florida: