Walmart and the middle class, sinking together

From Rick Newman writing at Yahoo Finance:

It was once General Motors whose fortunes reflected those of the middle-class Americans who bought its products.

Now, that bellwether Goliath is Walmart.

The giant retailer has become a microcosm of the middle class, since both are mighty yet struggling, and both may be going even further downmarket...

The emerging “barbell economy” — growing clusters of high- and low-income consumers, with fewer in the middle — has driven many of Walmart’s customers either to higher-end department stores or to deep discounters such as dollar chains....

With Walmart tied so closely to the fortunes lower-middle-class Americans, it’s no exaggeration to say that, as goes Walmart, so goes America. And vice versa.

Like many struggling Americans, Walmart has plans to rejuvenate its performance and assure its relevance. It has invested more in its website and e-commerce infrastructure, to compete better with Amazon.

It also plans to open more small, neighborhood outlets that shoppers might visit for a handful of items, in contrast to the warehouse-sized stores that can take an hour or more to navigate.

There have even been rumors Walmart could buy a discount chain such as Family Dollar (FDO), giving it a sudden, large presence in the thriving lower end of retail.
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Link: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/walmart-and-the-middle-class--sinking-together