Schnucks to end sale of tobacco products in accordance with company mission

Citing the company's mission to "nourish people's lives," Schnuck Markets Inc. announced last week it will end the sale of all tobacco products effective Jan. 1.

The discontinued products will include cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, chewing tobacco and snuff. The St. Louis-based company, which operates a Schnucks supermarket at 19 S. Kingshighway in Cape Girardeau, will sell its existing inventory through the end of the year.

In making its announcement, the company noted it already doesn't sell e-cigarettes or vaping products.

Other chains have stopped selling tobacco products in recent years, including CVS Health. Walmart announced in May it was raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21 from 18, according to the Associated Press.

Beginning Oct. 15 and continuing indefinitely, Schnucks will offer double "rewards" points on all over-the-counter smoking cessation products. The company says this is intended to be an incentive to support the estimated 68% of smokers who want to stop using tobacco products.

"Tobacco products are certainly a profitable part of our business, but our company's mission is to nourish people's lives," Schnucks chairman and CEO Todd Schnuck said in a company news release. "Tobacco products directly contradict our core mission and that means that they simply don't belong in our stores."

Information supplied by Schucks cited World Health Organization data showing tobacco use remains the world's leading cause of preventable death. More than 1,300 people in the United States die daily due to smoking-related illnesses, including an average of more than 100 deaths a day as a result of secondhand smoke exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Unlike many other products, there is simply no moderate amount of tobacco use that is not harmful," Schnuck said.

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