ROCHESTER, - Wegmans Food Markets Inc., an upscale supermarket chain with 71 stores in five states, said Friday it will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products next month.

“We have come to this decision after thinking about the role smoking plays in people's health,” the company's top executives, Danny Wegman and his daughter, Colleen, said in a letter to employees.

“We certainly respect a person's right to smoke, but we believe there are few of us who would introduce our children to smoking.”

The family owned retailer said it has stopped ordering tobacco supplies and will sell its remaining inventory until Feb. 10.

Wegmans has 50 stores in New York, 11 in Pennsylvania, seven in New Jersey, two in Virginia and one in Maryland. Tobacco is a “very profitable category” for Wegmans, spokeswoman Jo Natale said, but she declined to specify how much money it has generated.

Tobacco and related accessories, such as lighters, accounted for $5.4 billion in supermarket sales nationally in 2006, according to a survey published in September by Progressive Grocer magazine.