Tell Them to Keep Tobacco Off Their Shelves!

I am writing to express my deep disappointment with your decision to start selling cigarettes and other tobacco products. Families like mine should be able to visit Family Dollar to stretch our dollar, not to get a better deal on products that promote disease and death.

You should be proud of the fact that, in your 53-year history, you have never participated in tobacco sales, which needlessly kill more than 400,000 Americans each year. Why dirty the history of Family Dollar now by selling the products responsible for that?

Cashing in the health of your customers for profit hurts your image, the health of your customers, and the fiscal health of the communities where you do business.

Many retailers have pulled tobacco products off their shelves as an act of corporate responsibility, which makes your unprecedented backslide from tobacco-free to "tobacco sold here" seem even more opportunistic and reckless. Peddling products that kill more than half of all people who use them cannot possibly be a sound business decision.

We should be able to bring our families into a Family Dollar store and have a family-friendly experience. I strongly urge you to reverse your decision to sell tobacco products.