Walmart to move into health care! The Bentonville, Ark based retailer has made an announcement that it will open its 1st Walmart Health clinic this month within a store in Dallas, GA. This clinic facility will provide customers with low priced health services to include dental, audiology, x-ray examinations and mental health counseling. If successful, this pilot program will be expanded further and will be implemented to other units across its chain. The clinic is designed to be in a separate building next to the main Walmart box in order to give clients a sense of privacy. Walmart is one of the largest pharmacy operators in the US, with over 4,700 locations offering pharmacy services accounting for approx. 9% or $36 billion of its roughly $332 billion in US sales FY 18.

With CVS and Walgreens expanding deeper into the healthcare business, Walmart is exploring its healthcare platform in order provide additional medical services to further accommodate its customers. CVS Health announced plans in June to expand its HealthHUB to 1,500 locations by end of 2021. One of the pushes from Walmart to consider this opportunity is the fact that 140 million people visit its brick and mortar stores every week and it gives them a chance to better serve their existing customer base with new medical services. The facility will have on-site health providers including nurses to offer consultations, immunizations, lab tests, hearing tests, vision tests and counseling sessions. Innovation is key in this new age of retail! Retailers that seek out opportunities and look for ways to engage with the customer, offering convenient solutions to solve problems will be the ones to remain relevant and prove to be successful moving into the future.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/29/walmart-is-piloting-health-clinic-at-walmart-health-in-georgia.html