It’s the new thing: setting up healthcare clinics inside drugstores.
CVS Corp., the largest drugstore chain, has been rolling out clinics from Minneapolis-based MinuteClinics across the U.S.
Target Corp. also is adding MinuteClinics, which provide quick access to physician assistants for routine family illnesses.
And Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has its own mini health clinics.
In May, Walgreen Co. snapped up Take Care Health Systems LLC and plans to open 400 clinics inside Walgreens by the end of next year.
Costa Mesa-based Lindora Inc., known for its diet products and “weight control” clinics at 35 Southern California Rite Aid stores, has expanded its services with the drugstore chain.
Lindora has added low-cost, walk-in, non-emergency care for strep throat, athletes foot and other ailments. The Lindora Health Clinic Wellness and Weight Loss sites also offer pregnancy tests and flu shots and are staffed by nurses and nurse practitioners.
“In-store clinics are the wave of the future,” said Cynthia Stamper Graff, Lindora’s president.
Rite Aid is starting with a few stores: Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel and Los Angeles. It already has a clinic open at its Costa Mesa store on 17th Street.
The “convenient care” industry began in 2000, according to the association, with MinuteClinic, which used to go by QuickMedx.
The in-store clinics have their share of controversy and not all states have warmed to the idea. Some doctors are balking. They say simple symptoms such as a sore throat could mean something serious and the clinics might not be able to recognize that.
The health clinics are a natural for the drugstores, Graff said.
Customers can get checked out at the Lindora Health Clinic, get a prescription from the nurse and get it filled at Rite Aid, if they want.
Leather Addition
The Irvine Home Center has added a tenant, Creative Leather. The leather furniture chain has opened a 12,000-square-foot showroom.
The furniture store joins Drexel heritage Home Furnishings, Bassett Furniture, The Great Indoors and others.
Creative Leather also has a 20,000-square-foot store at 3303 Hyland Ave. in Costa Mesa. It opened in April at the South Coast Home Furnishings Centre. The center, developed by Birtcher Development & Investments LLC, is 300,000 square feet and has spaces for 30 showrooms.
South Coast Plaza Openings
South Coast Plaza has three new stores:
– Marni, selling women’s clothes by Italian designer Consuelo Castiglioni.
– Environment Furniture, a 2,800-square-foot store that uses Brazilian wood.
– And a British lingerie boutique inside Bloomingdale’s called Agent Provocateur.
Also at South Coast Plaza, Bally, a clothing, handbag, shoe and accessory store, is reopening this week.
House of Imports Buys Building
Mercedes-Benz dealer House of Imports Inc. in Buena Park recently bought its 43,710-square-foot service building at 6920 Stanton Ave. from Mattox Properties for about $3 million.
Steve Dougherty, facility manager, said AutoNation Inc.’s House of Imports had been leasing the building.
