They are claiming that the Amazon App that allows someone to take a photo of something they want, looks it up in their inventory, and ships it to you, is going to kill cigarette sales at CVS.

Because, you know, when you need a pack of smokes, that is what you do... and wait 12 to 24 hours for delivery (perhaps a bit faster when Amazon gets permission to deploy 1 Million quad copter drones....

Or, you could do what every smoker I know does... go to the corner market or gas station and buy a pack.

I would submit that cigarettes are probably one of the few items that brick and mortar stores will continue to do well with...

I order books, DVDs, gifts of various types, clothing for relatives not physically near me, appliances and computers online. I buy my groceries and pharmacy products at the supermarket and pharmacy.

During the dotcom boom/bust, I was an EIR (Entrepreneur in residence) at a Silicon Valley VC firm, one of the proposals that I reviewed was for a company that wanted to sell womens beauty products (makeup) online. They had a kick ass team (full of ex-Revlon executives), they had the correct IT plan for creating a online ordering web store, they had ideas on warehouse and delivery.

So I went to every woman I knew (my sister, my mother, my girlfriend, her girlfriends, etc) and asked "Would you order makeup online?" The answer was almost universal... "for re-orders of things I know I want and won't change, sure... but for things like lipstick, eye-liner, mascara, etc... I want to go to the store, stand at the makeup counter with the sales clerk, and try a bunch of stuff... and I want to see how it looks on me before I buy it... not on an icon with what they THINK is my skin color!"

So I recommended that the VC not invest. Others invested $50 Million in their startup... and they went belly up about a year later.

That this particular business plan not only got $50 M in first round financing, but were actively CHASED DOWN by multiple VC firms trying to be "in on the ground floor" told me that the dotcom boom was about to bust...

it seems like if people were already running down to cvs to get a pack of smokes they would be more willing to grab soap while they were there than if they had to get them at gas station. Then why make two stops? Just stay home and send a picture of it to amazon.

Know the cheapest cigarette store in the area. ..pharmacy chains are not it..nor is Walmart..nor will be amazon I would speculate.

Nicarette products and e - cigarettes. .many use these products to either get off the toxins of cigarettes or to quit, which should be a function of a pharmacy, imho.

on something other than critical thinking skills. Gawd what a load of drivel.