Target stores across nation to stop selling cigarettes

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Target department stores nationwide will be crushing out cigarette sales by the end of September, a company official announced today.

"It's really a business decision. It's driven by profitability," said Susan Eich, spokeswoman for the Dayton Hudson Corp. of Minneapolis, parent company of Target stores. "In the past several years, 20 percent of our stores already stopped selling cigarettes."

Eich said recent proposals to get the FDA involved in regulating cigarettes sales had nothing to do with Target's decision. She attributed the change to the increase in local ordinances requiring that sales be made in free-standing booths, a costly venture for the corporation.

"Cigarettes are also a high-theft item," Eich said. "Even though this is a million-dollar business, it represents only a half percent of our annual sales."

Target operates 714 stores in 37 states. It has six stores in the Las Vegas Valley.

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