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sensationalist clickbait with no substance. tldr: walmart wanted to reach higher end customers so it bought higher end online clothing retailers.

move along, nothing to see here.

Death of the middle class seems a bit drastic. Kind of clickbaity. More like walmart fails to keep middle class demographic.

I feel like Amazon is a big part of this. Amazon isn't always the absolute cheapest, but it is super convenient and easy. If you don't have to pinch every penny you might just do most shopping on Amazon and save the hassle of going to the store.

Target as well has always been the middle class version of walmart imo. Better kept stores and slightly higher prices(at least in my area).

Read the Pew study linked by the article. The decline in the middle class definitely seems to be a real thing.
Getting more upper-middle class shoppers... Well, not having crap produce and meat in your "super" walmarts would be a great start... Despite all the marketing efforts I don't buy anything that is "fresh" at walmart, because every time I do or look, I'm disappointed. Their buyers (I mean Walmart's buyers, not their customers) must really just be at the bottom of the barrel.

The last time I bought meat at walmart, a sirloin roast, looked great in the package, wasn't even what I was looking for, but got it... after I got it home and out of the package, turn it over, and it's nearly 1/3 silverskin and fat. That wasn't even the first time.. never again. Same goes for produce in general.

Ahh, but we're talking about fashion, clothes and more... well, as long as you're targeting broad markets, you'll have issues there too. Walmart is the effect of a race to the bottom.. squeezing out every margin other than their own... same goes for Amazon of course lately.

I'm not saying it should be legislated away, but just loosing myself and others as customers.

They could just be realizing that with an online store you don't have the same inventory limitations, so they're experimenting a bit.