WALMART hosted its annual spring health services event this week after shutting down its clinics entirely.
The company hosted Walmart Wellness Day on Saturday, offering free glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure testing.
The event took place in more than 4,600 Walmart pharmacies, the company he said.
Wellness Day offered “affordable” vaccines in addition to screenings as the company tries to compete in the pharmaceutical sphere.
It’s not the first time the store has offered this promotion – it had a similar day in January.
This week’s wellness day followed the company’s recent decision to shut down its health clinics across the country.
Walmart will close its 51 U.S. health centers, the company announced last month.
Executives called the change a “difficult decision.”
The health centers opened in 2019.
While clinics close, Walmart pharmacies will remain open.
DIFFICULT DECISIONS
Executives mentioned the closure of Walmart clinics on a conference call with investors last week.
“There are a number of things that were going well and we really want to be part of the solution to improve healthcare in this country,” said Walmart US CEO Doug McMillon.
He blamed high costs and low profits.
“But the reality is that, given reimbursement rates and service costs, we can no longer see a path to achieving an acceptable level of profitability,” he added.
It’s unclear how many doctors will be affected by the shutdown.
McMillon thanked employees on the earnings call, where the company reported significant gains.
“We are grateful to our associates who have worked in this area,” he said. “They did their part.”
Now, the company’s healthcare strategy is led by pharmacies.
“We will continue to build our pharmaceutical and optical businesses and find ways for our pharmacists to help, as they have with immunizations and vaccinations,” he said.
Walmart stores closed in 2024
So far, Walmart has closed the following stores in 2024:
- San Diego, California – February 9
- El Cajon, California – February 9
- Columbus, Ohio – February 16
- West Covina, California – March 29
- Towson, Maryland – April 5
- Granite Bay, California – April 12
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin – May 19
- Fremont, California – May 24
WALMART NEWS
Walmart has made several changes to its operations in recent months.
On last week’s earnings call, McMillon announced that the company was reducing prices on some products, seeing slight deflation in certain products.
Previously, the company has pointed to improving delivery efficiency to help the company’s bottom line and possibly avoid price increases.
Despite profit growth, the company closed several stores across the country.
However, it is also expanding its presence simultaneously.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
