Walmart To Stop Selling E-Cigarettes Amid National Vaping Scrutiny

This one is sure to hit the e-cigarette industry even harder than the CDC’s alarmist Thursday briefing updating its number of recorded nation-wide vaping related lung illnesses to 530 people: Walmart has announced plans to halt all sales of e-cigarettes while citing “uncertainty” amid the rise in vaping related deaths. 

“Given the growing federal, state and local regulatory complexity and uncertainty regarding e-cigarettes, we plan to discontinue the sale of electronic nicotine delivery products at all Walmart and Sam’s Club US locations,” the company said in a statement. “We will complete our exit after selling through current inventory.”

No doubt such a move from America’s largest retailer will ripple across the industry, and will likely pressure other chains to follow suit. 

This after Michigan became the first state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes early this month after its health department declared youth vaping a public health emergency, which as we predicted might also be the start of a state by state domino effect.

After hitting the market with a bang with the implicit endorsement of both regulators and established tobacco companies, vaping has found itself under fire from all sides, especially now that it was unveiled that vaping addicts tend to shift to traditional cigarettes, making vaping a wonderful “gateway” product for big tobacco… one which may now have served its purpose.

Which is why we don’t expect Walmart to ever so much as consider a ban on its no doubt much more lucrative, yet historically more dangerous, traditional cigarette sales.