CVS Stops Selling Tobacco A Month Early

As CVS sharpens its focus on customer health, the drugstore chain based in Rhode Island said it will stop selling tobacco in their 7,600 stores Wednesday, nearly a month sooner than planned.

CVS says not selling tobacco products will trim about $2 billion in their annual revenue.

CVS Caremark will also tweak its name to CVS Health. But the signs on its roughly 7,700 drugstores won't change, so the change may not register with shoppers.

However, those customers will see a big change when they check out. The cigars and cigarettes that used to fill the shelves behind store cash registers have been replaced with nicotine gum and other products that help people kick the tobacco habit. CVS said earlier this year that it would stop selling tobacco products on Oct. 1.

CVS and other drugstores have delved deeper into customer health care in recent years.