PAGE
6
GENERAL MOTORS
FLIPS THE RATIO
WOMEN WILL MAKE UP
more than half of GM’s
board next month,
after two male directors
retire, leaving six female
directors—including
chair Mary Barra—to
five men. That’s a big
milestone for one of the
Fortune 500’s biggest
companies, but GM isn’t
alone. Five others have
boards of directors with
more women than men.BOARDS Another five are at the 50% threshold exactly,
and more than two dozen
are close to it, above
the 40% mark. Some of
these companies—like
CBS, with five men and
six women, and Wynn
Resorts, with five men
and four women—have
#MeToo upheavals to
thank for their newly
gender-diverse slates
of directors. Others, like
Michele Buck’s Hershey
and Jill Soltau’s J.C. Pen-
ney—each with six men
and five women—have
been proactive in diversi-
fying the gender makeupof their boards. In 2018
women still held only
22.5% of Fortune 500
board seats, according
to Alliance for Board
Diversity and Deloitte—and more than three
dozen companies
still have only one or
zero women in their
boardrooms.
—EMMA HINCHLIFFE36
FORTUNE.COM // JUNE.1.19
Cigarette sales fell to
252.7 billion sticks in
2017, from 292.7 bil-
lion in 2012, accord-
ing to Euromonitor
International.
Cigarettes are a
modest and declin-
ing business for U.S.
drugstore chains—
total sales of about
$1.6 billion based on
Euromonitor Inter-
national data—but
they’re a desperately
needed source of foot
traffic for Walgreens
and Rite Aid. Both
chains have seen
comparable non-
pharmacy sales fall in
the past four quarters.
But in contrast,
sales at CVS were
up 0.5%, showing
that there can be a
healthy retail life
after dropping a bad
habit cold turkey.
For a nuanced look
at the health of CVS, see
story in this issue.R X RETAIL EVER SINCE CVS HEALTH ditched tobacco
products in 2014—sacrificing $2 billion
in sales to bolster its image as a health company—
Rite Aid and Walgreens have been facing pressure to
follow suit.
The companies recently raised their minimum
tobacco sales age from 18 to 21—aiming to reduce
minors’ access to
them. But the moves
came soon after a
lashing in March
from the FDA, which
found both chains,
with a combined fleet
of 15,000 stores, to
be among 15 major
retailers selling ciga-
rettes to minors.
Beyond the brick-
bats and bad PR,
declining sales would
be a valid reason to
exit the category:From left: Michele Buck, Hershey president; Shari Redstone,
CBS & Viacom vice chair; Mary Barra, GM chair.Why Can’t
Drug stores Quit?
Rite Aid and Walgreens have raised the age to
buy tobacco products to 21 from 18. But why
are they selling them at all? By Phil Wahba