I've read that the drug store chains don't think they have a future selling products that people can buy online, and are switching to healthcare services (flu shots, mini-clinics, etc.), and that they see advocating for health issues as marketing, while selling something like cigarettes is incompatible with their new image and mission.
In the UK drugstores are pretty much extinct, and are most commonly found as a desk in a supermarket. The UK is a bit different though in that supermarkets have sold non-prescription drugs and similar items you'd only find in a drugstore elsewhere for a long time.
Cigs bring lots of people in the door, like fuel at a gas station. Probably not a profitable decision. Will lose plenty of regular customers. Could be exec has personal reasons for it, like a family member death.
