Posted on 03/24/2006 1:02:52 PM PST by serendepitylives
Upscale Wal-Marts -- what's next, buggies with bling?
By Eric Heyl TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, March 24, 2006
NEWS ITEM: Wal-Mart this week is debuting an experimental store geared toward upscale shoppers rather than the retailer's traditional discount-oriented consumer base. If the Plano, Texas, store proves successful, similar-style Wal-Marts may open in other locales. "Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to Le Mart du Wal. My name is Francois, and I will be your personal shopping assistant today. Has your experience with us so far met your expectations?"
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Maybe a Star-Bucks for the whiney lib shopper.
Dude, you made me snort my Dr. Pepper out of my nose! I can just see a big ol lady in a MooMoo saying, "Par le vue WHAT?"
The Target near me has a Starbucks in it.
You could call it "Yo-mart"
Our new library is getting a coffee shop in it. I'm actually excited about that, because then I could actually LIVE in a library, LOL!
(It's only a block from our new office space, which we will move into in May. Life is Good!)
As for Wal-Mart, for some of them anything would be an improvement, though my local Wal-Mart is clean and well staffed. :)
Once they kill off the competition, they'll be a place for the non-trendy and the people who want to take a long walk inside on a rainy day.
On a related note, McDonald's is serving gourmet coffee around here. I WANT MY BLAND, CHEAP COFFEE BACK !!!!
K-Mart tried the same thing--forget about their lower-income customers for higher income customers. Tried to compete with Sears customer base. Few short years later K-Mart slid into bankruptcy. Wal-Mart might be looking for Chapter 11 trying the same thing and ole Sam will turn over in his grave.
I don't thing they're forgetting about the lower-income customers. The word coming out of the board for a while has been that they think they've gobbled up almost as much of the low end market as they can so further market expansion is soon going to have to be horizontal not verticle. That's what moves like banking and this are all about, finding new markets to utterly dominate as well as the markets they already own.
Sam's been turning over in his grave for a while now.
I prefer Target to Wal-Mart. I'm willing to pay 5% on my discount store items just so I don't have to deal with stupid clerks who can't make change, long lines of people with full carts going through the express lines, and cheap crappy goods made in China. Plus, I can get a venti mocha (no whip) at Target.
:)
Target? As in pronounced tar-ZHAY?
I have some of those!
How much more upscale do they plan to go? Our WalMart already has a McDonald's in it!
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