Mass Retailers gone….MEDICAL?
While you would expect to drive down the street and see a hospital or urgent care facility in your own neighborhood; would you expect to see a medi-clinic in your local Wal-Mart? Mass retailers like Wal-Mart and CVS drug stores have been in the medi-clinic business? Move over Mc Donald’s!
Why not? In this economy, a Wal-Mart medi-clinic cost is a fraction of the cost of an urgent care facility, ever better yet, an ER visit! The big boys are trying to build a model of “if you build it, and they have cash, they will come!”
You have to think:
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Does it promote big businesses’ go into the health care business?
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Do they belong there?
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Will this help facilitate the push for reformed, controlled health care for the US, or will it be promoting something that just should not be happening; Wal-Mart taking care of sick people? My opinion, if the Doctors are like the sales associates; I may be reluctant.
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Where does this thing go from here?
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Where does this put our “choices” of future health care?
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What is next, Mc Donald’s offering a dental check when you pick up your fries?
I would love to hear your insights.
Good, bad or indifferent, the vision has been a little depressed lately by the numbers of actual clinics that have been closed or scheduled to not OPEN at all. Both retailers have had a “slow road to a sustainable platform” with this one.
Food for thought: even the big guys make mistakes in opening up “other” revenue streams. Even more evidence that doing due diligence when looking to capitalize on a certain business model needs through planning, proper expansion, vision and a plentiful, willing to pay customer base.
You can read all about this story at http://www.retail-merchandiser.com/dailydose/todays-retail-roundup/628-slower-road-to-a-sustainable-platform.html
Always Dream Big!
Kim Babjak
July 28th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Kim:
Great possible joint venture idea. Medical clinic takes advantage of great foot traffic, accessible location, and Wal-Mart adds another reason to shop (think of family members waiting for the patient to get checked out; why not shop while we wait?).
The big challenge is margins which get tighter and tighter. If Wal-Mart can take advantage of their size to negotiate better pricing then it could work.
With the new health care initiate in Congress, this could all be out the window pretty quickly though - high risk, low reward.
Outside of the healthcare angle though this has some nice applications for businesses with excess store space capacity and dropping revenues - bring in compatible JV partners and share the profits - win/win until things turn around.