Like the weather, everyone always talks about getting healthy but hardly anyone ever does anything about it.
And then there’s Walmart.
With the news today that the Big Boys from Bentonville are rolling out an additional 22 Walmart Health centers this year, bringing its total to about 70 around the country, the ginormous giant is continuing to stake out its claim to become a player in health services. It’s always included pharmacies in its stores and many have optical departments and other health-oriented services but these clinics take its efforts up to a whole new level. And it’s a level Walmart is very good at playing in.
As such, it joins the big drug store chains – CVS and Walgreens, notably – so-called doc-in-a-box clinic chains often operated by local hospital networks and even its arch-rival Amazon in going after this business. It’s the next battleground area for big retail and anyone who isn’t ramping up their efforts here – talking to you Target, to you Costco, to you big supermarket chains – is in danger of missing out a key area for growing its business.
While Amazon is mostly focused on this online (it does have its in-person One Medical Clinics operation), everyone else is doubling down on in-store venues because, let’s face it, you can’t take your blood pressure online yet (Apple?) and when you stick out your tongue and say “ahhhh” in front of a computer screen not much happens as a result.
By the end of this year Walmart will be in five market areas and a sixth, Arizona, is scheduled to be added in 2025. You know Walmart: once they decide they’ve got a format that works – and it looks like they are pretty much there now – they are going to explode this concept as quickly as possible across the rest of its 50-state footprint.
We are all getting older (do you know anyone who gets younger…despite good plastic surgery?) and despite Ozempic and all the rest of these miracle drugs, we’re really not getting much healthier either. Walmart moved into the supermarket business because it knew that was irreplaceable as a growth vehicle. We might not need a new shirt or blender but we’ve got to keep eating.
It’s the same thing with health services. This is a business not going out of business. Walmart knows it. Its competitors better too.
WarrensReport 