No.

Walgreens, CVS & Kroger have had clinics for quite some time now not sure why Walmart getting one is all that exciting or different

When I read this one of my first reactions was that of the many coal miners and nuclear complex workers I knew and had read about in declassified documents who had said if only they had been correctly diagnosed about black lung and berylliosis. Walmart has some problems - needs to make some money and save some money, hence the new North American manager. They've got some problems. Interestingly Costco doesn't have many of those. There are a few approaches - one is to make sure sick workers go to work anyway, another is to let sick workers have PTO and stay home to deal with it. Will Walmart, like coal companies, find ways to not find illness?

This may seem obtuse to my free market friends but it bears asking - if the state took care of health care, if firms didn't have to worry about profit-taking in that sector, if firms could do their work without having to deal with insurance, medical costs and company doctors - would American firms be more competitive?

On fair balance, countries that have taken commercialism out of health systems have enabled health spending to areas of medical need rather than siphoning health dollars to profits. With their entire populations covered, it is much easier to find cost-effective prevention and public health strategies. It makes a lot of sense, but I can imagine situations in boardrooms where it does not. It may be that the system passively constrains itself from such considerations.

I would prefer to never have to go to a WalMart for healthcare. I thought there were plenty of available clinics. Will this cause a problem for existing clinics? Although I can say that WalMart pharmacies do not seem to be causing a problem for Walgreens, but I do not know the details.

I have a friend who is a fellow retiree from Y-12 and he recently got a new pair of eyeglasses, after much pestering from the rest of us. He says his prescription is rather unusual and he searched all over town looking for a place to get it filled within the plant's insurance plan. He ended up at Wally World. The quotes from all the other vendors were more than double what he paid there.

Anything more than standard near or farsighted eyes, I would stay as far away as I could. Been there and now I am paying the price.

What's a membership?

I'm just an old guy who is a regular who has gotten friendly with the cashiers by writing checks for even amounts for putting cash on my gas cards. For instance, if my total is 114.62 I'll have them put 35.38 on the Costco cash card for use at the gas pumps. Then I start writing a check for 150.00 dollars. It's not much of a trick really, mostly we just talk, but I'm afraid I might have gotten overly casual and let our business relationship fall dangerously close to actually being friendly. I meant no disrespect to the young women, it was intended as a term of endearment.

I've been told you don't need a membership to access the pharmacy. you can the the doorkeepers you are heading there to get in.