(p. B3) Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, said Tuesday [April 30, 2024] that it was shutting down its health care centers, a network that only last year it said it planned to expand.
The retailer said in a blog post that its 51 health centers across five states would close.
. . .
Offering health care is more difficult than selling consumer goods like laundry detergent and car parts, said David Silverman, a retail analyst at Fitch Ratings, noting the layers of government and insurance providers involved.
“The attempts to enter these spaces and some of the failures of doing so really underscore the challenges and complexities of operating in the U.S. health care space,” Mr. Silverman said.
. . .
In 2021, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase ended their high-profile joint health care venture, which sought to explore new ways to deliver health care to their employees. In March, Walgreens said it had closed 140 of its VillageMD clinics and planned to close 20 more.
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(Note: ellipses, and bracketed date, added.)
(Note: the online version of the story has the date April 30, 2024, and has the title “Walmart Is Shutting Health Centers After Plan to Expand.”)