This week, Walgreens Boots Alliance’s VillageMD announced a merger with medical care centers operator Summit Health.

Together with Summit Health, the parent company of urgent care provider CityMD, the network of care centers have 680 locations in U.S. 26 markets. With the new $8.9 billion deal, Walgreens joins co-investor Cigna in backing these growing chains of care centers. 

The news comes at a time when retail companies are heavily investing and integrating health care into their offerings. Last July, Amazon announced it will acquire primary care clinic operator 1Life Healthcare for $3.5 billion. Amazon already owns and operates digital pharmacy PillPack, which it purchased in 2019 for $750 million. In September, Aetna-owner CVS acquired home health care service Signify Health for $8 billion. Walgreens is trying to become more and more of a health care destination like its competitors, and this latest major investment signals the drugstore giant’s growing interest in delivering health care services to its customers. 

While these bets don’t come cheap, companies like Walgreens expect to see a return on these investments in the coming years. And with the traffic boost from vaccination rollouts slowing down, drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens are trying to continue diversifying their revenue sources.