In an article entitled ‘Profits before health, again: tobacco products dominate supermarkets’ top 10 in big boost to bottom line’ (Pharmacy News , 28 February 2008, p. 12) it was reported:

A cigarette brand—Winfield, manufactured by British American Tobacco Australia—is the number one product sold in supermarkets.

I hope that as health professionals, you find this information as abhorrent as I do. It makes a complete mockery of the fact that the two leading supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have for a long time tried to get their hands on the pharmacy market.

Based on this information, one can only conclude that profit and greed are priorities set at a higher level than health outcomes. I urge the pharmacists of Australia to become passionate about this issue, as we are quickly becoming one of the few businesses in the retail environment for whom health priorities actually mean something … The supermarkets have the ability, however, with their huge investment in marketing spin, to convince the Australian public that their priority is elsewhere, with the use of such marketing slogans as ‘the fresh food people’.

Explain from both a Legitimacy Theory perspective and a Stakeholder Theory perspective how, or whether, Australian supermarkets might react to such publicity.