Walmart Says Weight Loss Drugs Reducing Food Sales

[Alpha8472]

It is called the Ozempic effect. Weight loss drugs are causing food sales to drop. Previously these customers would buy tons of snack items, Twinkies, chips, sodas, etc. Now the customers have lost their appetite and are eating and drinking less. Even their desire for alcohol has gone down.

I don't know what the long term effects of these drugs are on most people. These are new synthetic drugs that people are injecting on a weekly basis. It causes drastic drops in weight and alters your cravings and desire for food. It also slows down your digestive system.

Who knows, maybe when you are 60 your digestive system could be totally slowed down to the point where you cannot even digest your food. Years later you may see drastic damage to your internal organs. Nobody knows the long term effects or if they could lead to digestive system collapse.

People think they can magically be thin without any exercise or eat all the fatty sugary foods they want without consequences.

The drug companies are making tons of money, and the insurance companies are not paying pharmacies a fair share. Each of these weight loss drugs could cause the pharmacy to lose $40 to over $100 per prescription. These drugs are pharmacy killers. Mom and pop pharmacies cannot absorb such losses. They would rather close than be forced to lose money on each of these prescriptions.

The supermarkets and drugstores also lose out on food and alcohol sales.

https://nz.news.yahoo.com/ozempic-causi ... 34530.html

[veteran+]

I think there is a lot of hype going on here.

Might as well be the headline:

"OZEMPIC causes multiple Supermarket bankruptcies!!"

[wnetmacman]

Let me clear a few things up about Ozempic/Mounjaro/others:

I take Ozempic for what it is designed for - to regulate my blood sugar. It excels in this. Have I lost weight? Absolutely, 40lbs!

BUT:

It is not an appetite suppressant. I still eat about as much as I did before, and sometimes I find myself wanting more. My A1C is normal now, which it has not been in several years. On 3/7/22, it was at 10.0. At last check, it was 6.9.

So - it's not a supermarket killer. Please stop referring to it as one.

If Walmart's food sales are down, maybe they should check out their competitors.

[veteran+]

Let me clear a few things up about Ozempic/Mounjaro/others:

I take Ozempic for what it is designed for - to regulate my blood sugar. It excels in this. Have I lost weight? Absolutely, 40lbs!

BUT:

It is not an appetite suppressant. I still eat about as much as I did before, and sometimes I find myself wanting more. My A1C is normal now, which it has not been in several years. On 3/7/22, it was at 10.0. At last check, it was 6.9.

So - it's not a supermarket killer. Please stop referring to it as one.

If Walmart's food sales are down, maybe they should check out their competitors.

EXACTLY!

[buckguy]

It's interesting how Walmart tries different ways to divert attentions. I think it was in the Spring that they did a "humble brag"----predicting weakening performance, but then doing a little better than expected. Now they try this. When they did the "humble brag", you just had to look closely to see that they weren't beating inflation. Because so much business news is based on press releases, they still get the narrative the want even if closer examination suggests that things are stagnating at best.

[ClownLoach]

Let me clear a few things up about Ozempic/Mounjaro/others:

I take Ozempic for what it is designed for - to regulate my blood sugar. It excels in this. Have I lost weight? Absolutely, 40lbs!

BUT:

It is not an appetite suppressant. I still eat about as much as I did before, and sometimes I find myself wanting more. My A1C is normal now, which it has not been in several years. On 3/7/22, it was at 10.0. At last check, it was 6.9.

So - it's not a supermarket killer. Please stop referring to it as one.

If Walmart's food sales are down, maybe they should check out their competitors.

EXACTLY!

Walmart charging $3.29 for a dozen eggs last night. Aldi around the corner charging $1.29. Walmart has become the most expensive grocer in town, and because of their EDLP pricing there really isn't any possible relief due to no sales, promotions etc. I'm not surprised their food sales are down. Clearly they've decided it's not worth it to sell food as a loss leader.

[mbz321]

Lol, I wonder which executive came up with that stretchhhh. Nah, it's definitely not because food prices have skyrocketed and people are buying less unnecessary foods like Twinkies and sodas, which seems to have gone up in price even more than other food items.

[Alpha8472]

Ozempic is meant for diabetics, however I have seen many people without diabetes trying to get it. In some cases there are some anorexic people who try to fill it. They look like they are in bad shape. It is disturbing. Many people are forging prescriptions for these weight loss drugs. I have seen many fraudulent prescriptions show up.

[SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT]

In my opinion, his comment is off-base. Sure, he sees his pharmacy sales numbers, including Ozempic and other similar drugs.

As other have pointed out - how many scrips are being written for "off-label" uses such as weight loss vs. for diabetes medication - as intended?

Recently, I have observed several PBM's and self-funded insurance plans (usually large corporations) begin to excise Ozempic and competitor type drugs from their formularies - simply because of cost, and require the use of step-therapy medications and treatments and other weight loss management programs before approving Ozempic-type medications.

What do I really think is happening? Many of Walmart's core customers live paycheck-to-paycheck and these customer are being impacted by the rampant rate of significant price increases. Whether that's the manufacturer actually passing along substantiated price increases, wanting more margin , or more likely some of both.

Walmart is not exempt here either. They attempt to be bold in their everyday pricing with certain staples and try to rein in price increases, while other products are seeing a trajectory in their price point - which Walmart is benefitting from.

Those "core" shoppers are just buying the basics and have reduced/cut back spending on products that in the past occasionally may have been ok to add to the shopping cart as they were relatively affordable at Walmart's price points. Now, those items are not considered "essential" and their core customers are not so willing to consider the "extra" and "nice-to-have" items for their weekly shopping trip.

I'm certain Walmart's item count/unit counts are down - but sales overall should be up factoring the rampant rise of inflation and margin grabbing by the manufacturers/producers.

Unfortunately, the days of low/no inflation are over. Just look at the bond market this week for clues.

Ozempic is not causing Walmart the "blues".

It's everything else included to the mix and maybe a small portion is related to Ozempic.

SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT

[veteran+]

Wegovy is for weight loss and Ozempic is for diabetes (supposedly) and they are made by the same company.

I do not believe Walmart is affected by this since their customer profile most likely cannot afford these medications nor have the type of insurance that would possibly cover it (if they have insurance at all).

This is just more corporate mendacities.