CVS Stops Selling Tobacco Products, Focuses on Social Relationship

Dan Ariely stressed that a social relationship and a market relationship cannot be maintained simultaneously.  Furthermore, he pointed out that once a market norm is entered into the equation, it completely diminishes the social relationship (which proves to be quite hard to recover).  He pointed out that businesses must decide whether they are trying to create a market or social relationship (with their employees and/or consumers) and align their actions to their goal.  

CVS recently said that they would stop selling tobacco products completely by October NYTimes, CVS to Stop Selling Tobacco Products.  However, the reason that they did it exemplifies Ariley's idea of maintaining a social relationship with consumers.   The CEO of CVS was quoted in the article saying, “We have about 26,000 pharmacists and nurse practitioners helping patients manage chronic problems like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and heart disease, all of which are linked to smoking,” said Larry J. Merlo, chief executive of CVS. “We came to the decision that cigarettes and providing health care just don’t go together in the same setting.”  This quote stresses CVS' ultimate loyalty to their customers' well-being, and maintains the social relationship with consumers as their friendly neighborhood pharmacy.