Healthcare Meets Commerce at Walmart Medical

My Walmart has a clinic. It’s extremely convenient on a weekend when your kid spikes a fever and is coughing like a barking seal. Just pop in, take a number, and wait for an exam. A quick, illegible scribble on the magic pad translates to a full night of sleep.

They don’t give you a number, though. They give you one of those beeper things like at the Olive Garden. They encourage you to go shop around the store - handle some greeting cards, breathe on the produce – whatever you want. But you’re not waiting for all you can eat soup, salad, and bread sticks. You’re trying to prevent the spread of disease.

Maybe the clinic people just want you out of their hair or maybe the save-money-live-better people are simply squeezing savings out of not buying waiting room chairs. Maybe they’re passing those savings on to you, the consumer with the contagious kid. After all, you have better things to spend your money on – like those Mommy’s Little Helpers also known as Benadryl and cough syrup.

Maybe I’m cynical (okay I am), but if the clinic people send you and your nasty germs out into the store where all the other people are, doesn’t it follow that more people will get sick and need clinic services? Makes you think twice about sampling the grapes too. Win-win.