Wal-Mart Going Upscale?

According to an article I found in the New York Times titled, Wal-Mart is Going Upscale. Well, at Least a Little, says that Wal-Mart is upgrading a lot of its merchandise, while trying to maintain the loyalty of its core customers. Claire Watts, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for merchandising said that for their new strategy, they will never abandon their core customer, but that they do have 100 million-plus people in their doors weekly and they are trying to reach out. Ms. Watts was quoted as saying “We’ve upgraded some of our fabrics, our linens, our cottons, our silk blends in our sweaters – we’re using a lot of spandex – and we’ve concentrated more on details. At the same time, Ms. Watts said Wal-Mart’s prices for many of these items was still 20 to 30 percent less “than our core competitor.” Do you think Wal-Mart will lose some of their core customers by changing some of their strategy to keep up with Target and Bed Bath and Beyond? Or do you think the demand for their products will continue to grow