They also sell like other stores generic medicines at very low costs; the issue being is some reimbursement setups exclude some of these and some politicians did not like the idea of cheap medicines because it undermined their position.
The problem with the American west is that people from California (and the other wealthy coastal areas to a lesser extent) see it as within the range of places they'd consider moving too.
There's no universe in which an rapid infusion of people who have more money than the locals is not bad for every local not selling overpriced garbage to the newcomers for a fat margin.
You see the same problems on the east coast and in the southeast but you see them in more constrained geographical areas because people from NYC don't cash out move to Indiana or Mississippi, they move to Vermont or Pennsylvania.
Their business is designed around tearing out margins in the value chain, and passing the savings along to customers. It's a business strategy unheard of - not only do they pass on a lot of savings, they force vendors to do so as well.
The healthcare system is completely fat with gristle, exactly what we need is a Walmart barking up the long-tail.
$15K-$20K for setting a broke arm? I don't think so. $30 for the Aspirin while you're at it? No. $2K for the scan? No goddam way.
Walmart would probably only get into things that could be 'very well operationalised' ie more common stuff.
And consider the vicious leverage they would have over drug makers ...
Healthcare is 15% of the economy and growing, Walmart tearing into Healthcare would be more transformative that the existence of Google.
For any service that Walmart provided, I would be glad to go there.
I'm sure you can find some quality items at Walmart, but you have to shop carefully.
If we were talking Costco healthcare, I'd be all in. All the "cut the fat" talk you mention, and you still end up with a quality product at a reasonable price.
For any arbitrary shopper-item combination, as long as the item can fit the basic merchantability requirements over the duration of the return period, the only significant criterion is going to be price. Knowing this and then ensuring that they have the cheapest merchantable items in every product class is how Walmart became the de-facto shopping nexus everywhere that major social and/or governmental interference hasn't stopped them. It's the place to go to get the stuff you have to buy, not the stuff you want to buy.
If your standards are too high to wear a shirt that consists of 80% recycled plastic, you don't buy shirts at Walmart. But that doesn't mean you automatically have the same high standards for a garden spade, a toilet seat, or a kitchen spatula. If we imagine that we need all four of these items today, we go to Walmart to buy the latter three and then use the money saved to invest in a better 100% cotton shirt from $FAVORITE_SHIRT_VENDOR.
Disagree, quality matters.
If only Walmart sold healthcare, college education, and New York apartments.