Lidl will immediately stop selling cigarettes and tobacco completely. The supermarket chain had previously indicated that it was phasing out the sale of smoking products and that it wanted to be the first supermarket in the Netherlands to stop using tobacco. That process has now been completed.
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Lidl has previously joined the movement ‘towards a smoke-free generation’. This is an initiative of Hartstichting, KWF and the Longfonds and aims to give children the opportunity to grow up smoke-free.
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Lidl’s decision to stop selling tobacco dates back to 2018. At the time, the supermarket said that cigarettes and tobacco had to be removed from all branches by 2022 at the latest. In the end, Lidl, which currently has 440 stores in the Netherlands, succeeded in this earlier than expected.
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“After announcing this step in 2018, we started to phase out the sale of cigarettes and tobacco,” explains a spokeswoman. “All branches that we have opened in recent years were immediately smoke-free. The phasing out in the other branches went well and this gave us the opportunity to realize our ambition to stop selling cigarettes and tobacco even earlier.”
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Cigarette Ban Supermarkets
A general cigarette ban for supermarkets is also coming, the cabinet announced last year. From 2024, supermarkets in the Netherlands will no longer be allowed to sell cigarettes. And a year earlier, the sale of tobacco via the Internet will already be banned. Smokers can only go to gas stations, specialist shops and other shops, including where magazines are sold.
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For example, the government wants to better protect young people and smokers who have stopped smoking against the temptation of smoking and impulse purchases are prevented. Previously, cigarettes, shag, cigars and e-cigarettes have been removed from view for the same reason at supermarkets, among others. By smoking or secondhand smoke, if you inhale smoke from others, many people die every year. It is estimated that about 20,000 people per year.
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Lidl’s announcement coincides with the start of ‘Stoptober’. Like every year, the month of October is dominated by the fight against smoking for thousands of people. From Friday they will try to stop smoking for four weeks and then keep it up.
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