Walmart will stop selling cigarettes across select stores in the United States, the retail giant confirmed on Monday, citing a “business decision.” “We are always looking at ways to meet our customers’ needs while still operating an efficient business,” Walmart said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal. “As a result of our ongoing focus on the tobacco category, we have made the business decision to discontinue the sale of tobacco in select stores.” The Epoch Times has contacted a Walmart spokesperson for comment. Walmart operates in over 5,000 U.S. locations where it employs 1.6 million people, according to company figures. It is not immediately clear which stores will no longer sell tobacco products. However, the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the development, said the company is set to pull cigarettes from shelves in some stores in California, Florida, Arkansas, and New Mexico. At some of these stores, Walmart has instead introduced more self-checkout registers for customers to …