Health care clinics are helping to drive foot traffic and loyalty

Pharmacies are commonplace in grocery stores across the country, but supermarket operators are upping the ante on health and wellness with on-site health care clinics, and attracting more shoppers, according to a new Placer.ai report.

The white paper released on Thursday titled “The Healthcare Opportunity in Grocery” shows that stores with health care clinics attracted more shoppers than their chain-wide averages, with Kroger and its various banners leading the trend.

Kroger introduced its in-store medical center concept, known as The Little Clinic, in 2003 and has grown the clinics to 225 locations. The supermarket company’s eight Dillons stores with clinics captured 93% more visits than its banner-wide average in the first half of 2024, the report noted.

Two supermarkets under Kroger’s Jay C Food Stores banner (which includes 22 locations) feature clinics and similarly outpaced its banner-wide average by 92.9%.

Kroger stores with clinics saw a 43% boost in foot traffic over its banner-wide average, as did Fry’s at 19.2%, King Soopers at 16.5%, and H-E-B at 14.5%.

Placer.ai’s research also showed that while many of the stores that have opened health care centers at locations in more affluent communities, the clinics tend to attract shoppers with higher household incomes.

“For some chains, including King Soopers, H-E-B, and Jay C, the clinics are positioned to begin with in areas serving higher-income communities,” the report noted. ”The median household income (HHI) of King Soopers’ in-store clinic’s potential markets, for example, came in at $92,300 in H1 2024 – significantly above the chain’s overall potential market median HHI of $88,100. Similarly, the potential markets of H-E-B and Jay C Food Stores with clinics had higher median HHIs than the chains’ overall averages.”

Kroger has been a trailblazer in the industry trend, which is a big draw for households with children, according to Placer.ai.

“The households with children in the captured markets of King Soopers locations with Little Clinics was significantly higher – 30.6% – and similar patterns emerged at Jay C, Dillons, Kroger, and Fry’s,” the Placer.ai white paper stated.

The clinics are also helping to build customer loyalty for Kroger. More than a third (36.4%) of visitors to Kroger Marketplace stores in Harrison, Ohio, visited a Kroger store at least six times in the first half of 2024.

“But over the same period, only 29.0% of visitors stopped by at least six times to a nearby Kroger location in Cleves, Ohio – just 10 miles away. Similarly, 30.7% of visitors to the Beechmont Ave. Kroger Food & Drug location with a clinic visited at least six times in H1 2024, compared to 23.0% for the nearby Ohio Pike Kroger store,” the Placer.ai white paper noted.

Kroger isn’t the only supermarket chain capturing customers through its in-store clinics. San Antonio, Texas-based H-E-B launched its H-E-B Wellness platform in 2022, providing customers with a variety of health care needs.

“In H1 2024, some 83.6% of visitors to H-E-B came from less than 10 miles away. But for locations with primary care clinics, this share increased to 88%,” according to the report. “This suggests that wellness services are particularly appealing to nearby residents, strengthening H-E-B’s connection with local consumers even further. And for a grocery store centered on community engagement, the integration of health services into its offerings is proving to be a winning strategy.”

The chain opened clinics at stores in Cypress and Katy, Texas, in 2022 and 2023, and saw an increase in so-called “Urban Cliff Dwellers,” who are defined as educated higher-income shoppers. In Cypress, the percentage of weekday shoppers jumped from 9.5% to 12.4% after the clinic opened, and in Katy, that rate increased from 11% to 7.2%

“This increase in the stores’ reach among ‘urban cliff dwellers’ immediately following the clinics’ openings suggests that in addition to more affluent consumers, middle-class families also harbor considerable interest in these services,” the report noted.