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Nicotine patch sales are growing and cigarette sales are declining in general in the US. There's not enough evidence or analysis here to show CVS made a big dif

• jondwillis 7y ago
  They also quote the stock price and earnings per share as evidence for the decision being positive. But their quote was over a very bullish period for equities, without providing contrast versus other similar publicly traded companies, nor context (including: CVS’ higher than average share buybacks in part fueled by tax cuts)
  • thaumaturgy 7y ago
    > They also quote the stock price and earnings per share as evidence for the decision being positive. No, actually. There's a tiny but important distinction here: the author is merely saying that there was a certainty that there would be negative effects, and that the expected negative effects didn't happen. The author even grants that there isn't a certainty that this decision caused a positive outcome: "Of course, there are many other factors that have contributed to CVS’s ... stock performance." The article's only point is that ideologues and demagogues often assume with 100% certainty that there will be some negative outcome from some company changing some policy or another, but that this is a flaw in their thinking, because they're imagining the market to be something much more limited, simple, and rigid than it really is.