Dollar General making advances into health care sector
CEO Todd Vasos says discount retailer’s large presence in ‘health deserts’ is influencing the company’s strategy.
Dollar General’s efforts to increase customer access to health care products and services — announced in July at the same time the discount retailer introduced a chief medical officer — are gaining traction.
As CNBC.com reports, Dollar General Chief Executive Officer Todd Vasos noted last week that about 65% of the company’s 17,177 stores are located in rural areas and small towns that he called “health deserts.”
“While it’s in its infancy stages, we really have an opportunity to grow that health-care side of the business — not only products in the store, but services,” Vasos said at a virtual conference hosted by Barclays. “We believe we have the ability to service the consumer in a lot of these instances where she today has to drive 30, 40 minutes to get basic health care.”
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On an earnings call two weeks earlier, Vasos reiterated the company’s plans to make Dollar General a destination for telemedicine and prescription delivery services, according to NBCNews.com. “What we’re going to be squarely focused on … are those services that rural America today especially doesn’t have access to,” Vasos said.
Approximately 75% of the United States population lives within five miles of a Dollar General store, and many stores already have become the primary source of groceries for residents of rural communities by selling fresh and packaged foods.
One of the first responsibilities of Dr. Albert Wu, Dollar General’s first chief medical officer who was appointed earlier this year, is to establish and strengthen relationships with current and prospective health care product and service providers to build a network of affordable services for customers, according to the company.
Dollar General also has expanded its selection of cough and cold, dental, nutritional, medical, health aids, and feminine hygiene products at many of its stores.
“This move to expand health care products will chip away at the market demand that full-service pharmacies and grocery-based pharmacies need to survive,” Kennedy Smith, a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance — a nonprofit advocacy group — told NBC News via email. “Dollar store staff simply do not have the medical or pharmaceutical training and expertise to provide customers with responsible guidance in choosing over-the-counter medicine and medical supplies.”
NBCNews.com also recapped other steps Dollar General has taken recently to strengthen its footing in the health care sector: “Earlier this year, it was in discussions with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a formal partnership as a Covid vaccine clinic. Recently, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services partnered with Dollar General to host a month-long community vaccine clinic in stores in nine counties. Stores in South Carolina and Indiana have also held vaccine clinics. In June, the Virginia Department of Health partnered with Dollar General to hold free Covid testing.”
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