Wal-Mart Tries Out a New Upscale Store

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 22nd 2006 at 5:02PM

We've been watching as super stores like Wal-Mart and Costco have inched their way toward the posh. Now Wal-Mart has taken a big step opening up a palace of luxe in Plano, Texas. The new store will offer high-end electronics, fine jewelry and gourmet food and wine. The Houston Chronicle quotes a study that says nearly half of American families shop at Wal-Mart at least once a week. With market saturation reaching its peak, the retail giant is hoping to court the upscale consumers. The store may also help Wal-Mart land vendors who have turned their up their noses at being associated with the brand. The new store is larger than the traditional Supercenter but the exterior is two-tone brick and inside their are wood floors and wide aisles with lower shelves. And no blue smocks! The first store is located in an area where there is also a SuperTarget and a Costco giving Wal-Mart a chance to try out the concept against their biggest competition.

Tags: affluence, costco, shopping, texas, wal-mart

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Mary Lou Schaeffer Mar 23rd 2006 12:28AM

I hate Wal-Mart. I wouldn't buy a toilet there if they gold-plated it. Wherever there's a Wal-Mart-there goes the neighborhood. I hate their incessant ugly commercials. I hate that we have to pay their employees' health insurance. I hate the entire Walton family who epitomize the swine produced by our miserable political parties' selling the American worker down the drain.I hate these same arrogant elected representatives who refuse to close our borders which will finally force that corrupt Mexican government to be overthrown as they so richly deserve@!We need to vote all the swine out of office asap> They can take our houses,they are taking our dogs. Next they will take our children!

Evan Labbe Mar 23rd 2006 3:00AM

That had almost nothing to do with wal-mart. I appluade that corporation; They are a paragon of business practice. At a time when K-mart was failing, WalMart gave them money with no strings attached to avoid any noise of monopolization in courts. They market well, employ everyone, young and old, and donate more money than Texas to charities. They know what they're doing, and they do it well.