DeCicco Markets, a small, six store, suburban supermarket chain in New York has joined what may become a trend that Wegmans started earlier this year. They plan to stop selling tobacco products as soon as their inventory runs out and should be tobacco free by April. I applaud you DeCicco Markets in your decision. (DeCicco Markets was one of my local supermarkets when I lived in the NYC suburbs growing up. I had friends who worked in the Chester Heights store in Bronxville when I was a teen and I shopped there often. They had great butchers and an excellent meat department. One of my best friends, Kevin, worked there and still has the nickname, "BEEF", to this day.)

Personally, as an ex-smoker, I think that tobacco products sales should be controlled more and only sold in stores that specifically sell tobacco products. I feel that smoking tobacco is an adult decision. Children and teens shouldn't be exposed to tobacco in grocery stores, pharmacies, deli's, etc. I know that I would never have started smoking when I was 13 if tobacco hadn't been easily available in vending machines and with packs piled high on the counters of deli's and candy stores. I smoked off and on half my life, I even worked for a year or two in the tobacco business as a cigar and pipe expert, and I am so glad I finally quit. I wouldn't have been able to develop the palate and ability to detect fine tastes that I have today if I still smoked. I remember a few weeks after the final time I quit when all of a sudden I was amazed at how good, and intense dinner was. My taste buds had been rejuvenated and food was like something new again.

So let's see how things shake up. Will this be the start of a supermarket trend for 2008? Are there any other chains out there around the country that are doing the same?

Rapper and Def Jam Records CEO Jay-Z has announced a boycott of Cristal Champagne in response to an Economist article that used the phrase "unwelcome attention" when it referred to the bubbly's popularity in the rap community.  Although Jay-Z cited comments made by Louis Roederer Cristal's managing director Frederic Rouzaud as his reason for pulling Cristal from his 40/40 sports lounges, the "unwelcome attention" phrase was actually not a quote, but rather text from the article's author Gideon Rachman (or possibly an Economist editor). The AP quoted Jay-Z: "I view [Rouzaud's] comments as racist and will no longer support any of his products through any of my various brands including the 40/40 Club nor in my personal life."  XXL's blog features some commentary, pointing back to the Economist article, and not Cristal's Rouzaud, who said that Cristal views the rap industry's embrace with "curiosity and serenity." An article on Pitchfork features a link to a short mix of various Jay-Z rhymes about Cristal. Amuse Bouche also chimes in, wondering when grower champagne will hit it big with the rap world.