Upper-crust Wal-Mart experiment in Plano, Texas

When you visit your local Wal-Mart, you expect to see the standard bevy of offerings - tube socks for a few bucks, milk and bread for ultra-low prices, and $150 bottles of chardonnay. You know, the usual. Wait a minute - $150 wine..at Wal-Mart?

In a rather interesting twist to Wal-Mart's (WMT) strategy to try and expand its horizons and presence into the upper-middle class, it's opened a concept store in Plano, Texas that caters to the usual Wal-Mart shopper as well as the well-to-do shopper. You can find organic produce, high-end wines, and exotic cold-pressed olive oils alongside your standard bargains. Hmm!

Wal-Mart must be trying their knack at trying to merchandise the uber-cheap mass quantities in general offerings alongside the finer things in life all in the same setting - but will it work? Wal-Mart's pouncing on another market they would love to have may encroach on stores that have always had the upper hand in retailing higher-end goods to complement WMT's obvious target market - but WMT has encroached before much to the chagrin of small businesses. What this experiment will do to their bottom line if successful could have far-reaching implications for higher-end competitors to the way organic foods are made and distributed across the U.S. - so we should all be watching how this Plano store performs.