According to a survey of 2,000 students conducted last spring, 14.7 percent of UB students smoke cigarettes regularly.
Starting Feb. 10, 100 percent of these students, along with members of the 27 communities that have Wegmans stores, will no longer be able to buy their cigarettes or tobacco products at Wegmans Food Markets.
Wegmans announced the decision on Jan. 5. The company's Chief Executive Officer, Danny Wegman, and president, Colleen Wegman, had been discussing this policy change on and off for several years, according to Senior Vice President of Operations, Jack DePeters.
According to DePeters, the move coincides with the company's values.
"The company arrived at the decision after thinking about the role smoking plays in peoples' health," he said. "We've always been concerned about health and wellness. The reason we're in business is to help our customers make great meals easy (and) to live healthier and better lives."
Sherri Darrow, director of Wellness Education Services, thinks that removing tobacco from store shelves will be one more obstacle for smokers to deal with.
"What Wegmans is doing is just another thing, another barrier, for people who are smoking that might cause them to add to their list of inconveniences and barriers that might encourage them to quit," she said.
According to Darrow, the National College Health Assessment survey conducted at UB last spring showed that 67.1 percent of students have never used cigarettes. She also noted that nationally, tobacco use has declined over the last 20 years. To Darrow, Wegmans' decision shows that they are responsive to the community - most people do not smoke, and they are no longer selling cigarettes.
"It's a very bold move on their part and I think...they're showing their commitment to the community," she said.
Arun Jain, a professor of marketing research and chairman of the Department of Marketing, thinks that Wegmans has to do a lot more if they want to show their commitment to the community's health.
"Don't go around pretending you're health-conscious when you're selling other unhealthy products," Jain said. "They carry so many other products which are harmful, but they have not decided to move them. Obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease are major factors contributing to poor health in the country, but they have not made any such rule on that. They are choosing just to pick out one of them: tobacco. "
DePeters thinks there is a clear distinction between tobacco and food products that are considered unhealthy.
"Fatty foods, soda pop, and even alcohol, can all be safely consumed in moderation. Cigarettes cannot," he said. "We respect a person's right to smoke, but also know that many who smoke would like to quit, including many of our own employees."
Darrow agrees.
"There's nothing as clearly proven as being a health detriment as tobacco. With fat and all that, it's much more convoluted and much more indirect," she said.
Jain thinks that if Wegmans wants to be health-conscious, they should put only healthy foods like fruits and vegetables on sale, not unhealthy foods like soda pop because low prices promote consuming those items.
"If they really were (health-conscious), they would remove all these other things, but they haven't because it's very profitable for them," Jain said. "Tobacco product (sales) were declining anyway."
According to DePeters, money was not the company's reason behind the decision.
Tobacco sales have not been a main concern for Wegmans in the past. The company moved tobacco products to the customer service desk, forcing customers to check out twice. Also, their retail price has always been higher than other stores because they have never accepted promotion money from tobacco companies and thus could not discount the prices. Still, the tobacco market is a profitable area for the company.
"In spite of higher prices, we sold an awful lot of cigarettes and it remained for us a very profitable category," DePeters said. "Although promotional dollars have always been available to us from tobacco companies, on principle we have never accepted that money, resulting in higher prices."
Lisa Giglia, a junior psychology major, used to find it convenient to be able to buy her cigarettes while grocery shopping at Wegmans.
"I shop at Wegmans sometimes, or at least I used to," Giglia said. "It's kind of a pain...if you're grocery shopping and you can't get (cigarettes) there."
Other students, like Chris Kozlowski, a senior computer science major, don't think that many people bought cigarettes from the grocery store in the first place.
"The reason no one bought cigarettes from Wegmans was because it was behind the service desk, so you had to check out twice," he said.
Jain believes that Wegmans risks losing the customers that did buy their tobacco products at the store.
"Surely they're going to lose customers, they should lose customers. They're giving up their business to Tops and everyone else," Jain said. "It's a fake argument to differentiate themselves from the competition."
Giglia had already begun shifting her grocery shopping to Tops because it's easier and cheaper to buy cigarettes there, she said.
DePeters acknowledged that losing customers it is a possibility.
"It's possible that people who don't agree with this decision will shop elsewhere," he said. "(But), we really never considered competition while making this decision."
Adam Brodsky, a senior marketing major, thinks Wegmans is already showing that they're health-conscious by offering a large selection of organic foods.
"They already have the big organic section, so I think it's only going to get them points with the hardcore anti-smoking set, but most people won't really care," Brodsky said. "From a public policy perspective, it's probably a good idea. Tobacco smoking, chewing and whatever else people do with it is damaging to people's health, but they still have the free choice to do so."
Just as people are free to make their own choices about their health, a company is free to make their own decisions about what products they carry.
"Wegmans has the right to sell what they want to sell so if they decide not to sell something...that is their decision and we cannot deny them the right," Jain said.
According to DePeters, the decision was not calculated to evoke a certain response from patrons and employees.
"Whether this decision reinforces the message that we're concerned about health and wellness is for customers and employees to decide," he said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
