“Certainly with a more affluent customer base that’s coming to Walmart now, there’s an opportunity to serve [them] in maybe more of a dark store format… We’re experimenting with that, and the early returns are encouraging…”
— from “Walmart’s Plan for Serving Wealthy Urban Shoppers” by Sarina Trangle on Investopedia.com, December 3, 2025.
Americans generally appreciate experiments, and also, early returns that are encouraging. But maybe Walmart appreciates them even more than the rest of us.
The economic news from the busiest shopping days of the year — Black Friday and Cyber Monday — was likewise encouraging, with reports that holiday spending in 2025 exceeded 2024 levels, in spite of everything. Estimates from credit card companies suggest that 203 million U.S. consumers shopped during the five-day stretch from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday.
No doubt I was counted among those 203 million consumers, although the only things I bought last weekend were some bananas and a bag of potato chips. The chips were on sale, but not the bananas.
Apparently, a lot of the Thanksgiving holiday purchases were made online rather than at brick-and-mortar stores. And a lot of those purchases were made by wealthy people.
Rich folks have more money this year than ever before, and they proved that by buying expensive luxury items online. Poor people, not so much.
Per a report in Investopedia, consumer sentiment crashed to a record low in November, but spending on retail purchases has not come down. The report suggests that it could be due to the confidence of wealthy customers, who have been able to gain from the stock market. Something I have not been able to do. Thus, the chips and bananas. Bananas are one of the best deals out there, these days, though Investopedia didn’t expressly mention them. Lots of potassium and vitamin B6.
Walmart understands this trend — rich people buying expensive stuff, and poor people, not so much — and that’s resulting in business plans to open more ‘dark stores’. Walmart stores that you can’t enter. When I first heard about ‘dark stores’, I was concerned that the employees would be expected to work without turning on the lights, maybe to save on electricity. But they mean something totally different.
Although rich people generally own more stuff than they can even keep track of, they still want more stuff, and they want it right now, delivered to their front door. So Walmart plans to open ‘dark stores’ close to urban areas, where rich people congregate, so the shipping times are more convenient. You won’t be able to enter these stores; they’ll basically be big shipping centers, filled with luxury items (I assume) that only rich people can afford. Like, not bananas.
Many people probably assumed that Walmart — “Always Low Prices” — would not be having the best time, business-wise, considering that “consumer confidence” hit a record low in November. But the company is actually enjoying one of its most successful stints. Share prices hit an all-time high in October, and analysts predict the company will report revenue of $178 billion, around 5% up from this time last year. Not bad, considering everything. Walmart just needed to attract the group that still has plenty of disposable income.
The misleading November data comes from asking poor people about their “confidence”. You should only ask the rich people.
In September, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey projected a 5% decrease in holiday spending in 2025, the steepest drop in holiday spending since the COVID crisis. But it seems rich people are coming to the economy’s rescue this holiday season. As they should. After all, we made them rich.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.