Wegmans to Stop Selling Tobacco

Source from:  January 05, 2008By Bob Niedt Staff writer 01/07/2008

It also offers employees free smoking-cessation program Saturday, Citing the "destructive role" of tobacco, Wegmans Food Markets Inc. is getting out of the smoking business, ending the retail sale of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products in all its stores by Feb. 10. Since store inventory is already low and no more is being purchased, the Rochester-based supermarket chain will likely sell out long before that date. "We will probably run out fairly shortly," said Ann Hyatt, consumer affairs director for Wegmans in Central New York. "We don't have that much inventory because, frankly, we didn't sell that much. Our prices are a lot higher on cigarettes." In a letter to employees mailed this week, the company's top executives, Danny and Colleen Wegman, said the ban is a logical move for Wegmans. "As a company, we respect a person's right to smoke, but we also understand the destructive role smoking plays in health," the Wegmans wrote to employees, who also were offered a free smoking-cessation program. The Wegmans said the ban is being done out of concern for the health of its employees and noted, "we believe there are few of us who would introduce our children to smoking." The move was immediately hailed by organizations opposed to smoking. "Keeping children smoke-free, creating barriers for the sale and use of tobacco products are all things we applaud, initiatives we champion," said Ross Lanzafame, chairman of the board of directors of the American Lung Association of New York State. "We applaud Wegmans for its decision." Lanzafame said he had not heard of any other supermarket chain of Wegmans' prominence doing something similar. "Wegmans is in five states. When someone of that magnitude takes such a major step to stop someone from smoking, it's a major thing," said Lanzafame. Enditem