Photo Kristoffer Tripplaar/Sipa USA/AP

Pharmacy giant CVS is booting cigarettes and other tobacco products from its stores. The change has earned CVS showers of praise, including from the White House, but there s one player not getting the credit it should Amazon.

As the pharmacy chain was getting all those plaudits yesterday, Amazon said that its iOS app would soon let you place an order simply by pointing your iPhone camera at a product no barcode scan needed. The two events may seem completely unconnected, but they re tied together like to borrow a phrase from Amazon s playbook a gazelle and a cheetah.

Though the CVS no tobacco decision seems like good corporate citizenship, it s also about staying one step ahead of Amazon s relentless campaign to eviscerate brick and mortar businesses.

The new Flow feature in Amazon s mobile app epitomizes just how aggressively the retail giant is pressing its technological advantage to win the market for everyday merchandise. Need more ketchup or dish soap? Just aim your camera at the empty bottle. Suddenly your whole house is an Amazon showroom.

In a way, Flow is gimmicky Most of this stuff has barcodes you could already scan at home, too. But every step Amazon takes to make buying smoother equals one more reason to skip a trip to the store. Says WIRED s Roberto Baldwin “It s all part of the company s goal to take you from I need that to I bought that in less than 30 seconds.”

That s especially threatening to a store like CVS, which sells consumer packaged goods commodity products that everyone else stocks, too. CVS can t compete with Amazon on selection or price. It can t even compete on consumer desire to see and feel before they buy Do you really need to hold that tube of toothpaste? The only advantage left is getting something right when you want it what retailers call the “top off.” The closer Amazon gets to on demand imagine combing Flow with same day delivery or vending machines the more CVS loses its last justification for maintaining physical stores.

Amazon Flow. Photo Ariel Zambelich/WIRED

A Place for Care, Not Just Stuff

The good news for CVS and its shareholders is that management has recognized this threat and is moving brilliantly to meet it. The company s effort to rebrand itself as a one stop health care destination, not just a corner store, has long been under way. The decision to stop selling cigarettes takes that soft launch and turns it into a loud, clear statement of a new identity You don t come here to buy paper towels, you come here to be well. (And you might pick up some paper towels while you re here.)

In its press release announcing the new no tobacco policy, CVS executives said all the right things about the ills of tobacco usage and the importance of promoting better health. But the subtext was all about how the company wants its customers to view its stores as a new kind of destination a place to go to get care, not just stuff.

“Every day, all across the country, customers and patients place their trust in our 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners to serve their health care needs,” said Helena B. Foulkes, president of the pharmacy division of CVS in the release. “Removing tobacco products from our stores is an important step in helping Americans to quit smoking and get healthy.”

The company also said it would lose $2 billion in revenue annually due to the decision not to stock tobacco. That s already a small percentage of its business, even more so when you add revenue from its CVS Caremark prescription drug coverage business. But $2 billion is also a small price to pay to stay ahead of Amazon. Just ask Borders or Circuit City, which went from thousands of stores to zero stores in a few short years after Amazon started chasing their markets. In the world of marketing, you can t do much better than the avalanche of positive press CVS is getting for its anti tobacco move. If you re going to take on Amazon, there s probably no better place to start than an endorsement by the President of the United States.

Fda proposes first regulations for e-cigarettes – wncn: news, weather

E-cigarettes: kodak moment
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM
AP Tobacco Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.

While the proposal being issued Thursday won&#39 t immediately mean changes for the popular devices, the move is aimed at eventually taming the fast growing e cigarette industry.

The agency said the proposal sets a foundation for regulating the products but the rules don&#39 t immediately ban the wide array of flavors of e cigarettes, curb marketing on places like TV or set product standards.

Any further rules “will have to be grounded in our growing body of knowledge and understanding about the use of e cigarettes and their potential health risks or public health benefits,” Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said.

Once finalized, the agency could propose more restrictions on e cigarettes. Officials didn&#39 t provide a timetable for that action.

Members of Congress and public health groups have raised concerns over e cigarettes and questioned their marketing tactics.

“When finalized (the proposal) would result in significant public health benefits, including through reducing sales to youth, helping to correct consumer misperceptions, preventing misleading health claims and preventing new products from entering the market without scientific review by FDA,” said Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA&#39 s Center for Tobacco Products.

The FDA said the public, members of the industry and others will have 75 days to comment on the proposal. The agency will evaluate those comments before issuing a final rule but there&#39 s no timetable for when that will happen. The regulations will be a step in a long process that many believe will ultimately end up being challenged in court.

E cigarettes are plastic or metal tubes, usually the size of a cigarette, that heat a liquid nicotine solution instead of burning tobacco. That creates vapor that users inhale.

Smokers like e cigarettes because the nicotine infused vapor looks like smoke but doesn&#39 t contain the thousands of chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes. Some smokers use e cigarettes as a way to quit smoking tobacco, or to cut down. However, there&#39 s not much scientific evidence showing e cigarettes help smokers quit or smoke less, and it&#39 s unclear how safe they are.

The industry started on the Internet and at shopping mall kiosks and has rocketed from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide who can choose from more than 200 brands. Sales are estimated to have reached nearly $2 billion in 2013. Tobacco company executives have noted that they are eating into traditional cigarette sales, and their companies have jumped into the business.

Some believe lightly regulating electronic cigarettes might actually be better for public health overall, if smokers switch and e cigarettes really are safer. Others are raising alarms about the hazards of the products and a litany of questions about whether e cigarettes will keep smokers addicted or encourage others to start using e cigarettes, and even eventually tobacco products.

“Right now for something like e cigarettes, there are far more questions than answers,” Zeller said, adding that the agency is conducting research to better understand the safety of the devices and who is using them.

In addition to prohibiting sales to minors and requiring health labels that warn users that nicotine is an addictive chemical, e cigarette makers also would be required to register their products with the agency and disclose ingredients. They also would not be allowed to claim their products are safer than other tobacco products.

They also couldn&#39 t use words such as “light” or “mild” to describe their products, give out free samples or sell their products in vending machines unless they are in a place open only to adults, such as a bar.

Companies also will be required to submit applications for premarket review within two years. As long as an e cigarette maker has submitted the application, the FDA said it will allow the products to stay on the market while they are being reviewed. That would mean companies would have to submit an application for all e cigarettes now being sold.

Michael Felberbaum can be reached at .

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