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To: schrodingers_cat who wrote (140369)	3/8/2002 9:38:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 164687

"Looks to me like WMT is moving away from their old business model with this move into higher priced jewlery. Do you think that this is a good idea? Any worries about them moving into your business? " SC, Wal-Mart has no more room to grow in their currnet market. They literally own most of it. The are looking at new markets but history has shown one cannot retail to different income level consumers out of the same location. I do not claim to know more than Wal-Mart. However, I believe when the average Wal-Mart jewelry buyer that is use to buying 10K gold asks for prices, they will consider Wal-Mart too pricy. I am not too concerned about Wal-Mart at this point. Their sheer size though can be intimidating. I still do not believe that will get them past this hurdle of different consuming markets. Zales learned that many years ago so they have the Zales chain of stores for the average consumer. They also have Baily, Banks and Biddle which they often place in the same shopping mall. Both stores concentrate on jewelry but Baily, Banks and Biddle is targeting a much higher end customer. They could save a lot of rent of they could combine these into one store. I tried targeting the higher end consumer for a while years ago but that was alienating my traditional customer. It did not work for me. I doubt it wil work or Wal-Mart either. Also, the consumer looking for a higher priced item likely does not want to give an engagement ring from Wal-Mart. It just does not sound "right."