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The following is one story you’ll find in today’s edition of The Water Coolest’s free daily email newsletter. The Water Coolest is a daily business news and professional advice email newsletter geared towards bros (read: expect a hearty helping of unfiltered commentary and advice on how to suck less at work).
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Walgreens is bringing things in house, closing a deal with VillageMD to host doctors’ offices right in its stores. Wow, where else can you buy an Arizona Iced Tea and get a rectal exam. Talk about a one-stop shop.
Doctors and cents
Within the next five years, VillageMD will open 500-700 clinics at Walgreens’ locations across the US, and it will get paid handsomely for it. Walgreens’ deal for VillageMD’s docs is worth $1B in equity and debt over the next three years, and it will receive a 30% stake in the company by the end of the deal.
Not to be outdone…
In addition to also putting healthcare facilities in two of its stores recently, Walmart is also dipping its toes into the insurance waters, moving to provide supplemental health insurance to Medicare recipients. This must have been at the behest of its greeters.
How serious is Walmart? Serious enough to file last year with the Arkansas Secretary of State to sell insurance. It’s also got jobs listed on its website for insurance agents in the Dallas area. Will Jake from State Farm sell out?
The bottom line…
COVID is really forcing companies to get creative huh? Neither move is unexpected, though. For Walgreens, it was really only a matter of time before they cut out the middleman and brought MDs into stores.
In the meantime, Walmart has been making moves to compete with Amazon, and you know what Big Body Bezos doesn’t sell? That’s right. Health insurance.
But, do his employees even get it? Let’s take it one step at a time.
Water Cooler Talking Point(s)
💧 “I love the idea of stopping in for a checkup before buying Hot Pockets at a Walgreens after a long work happy hour. ” (AJ, The Water Coolest HQ)
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