It’s a great time in America to be a parasitic retailer. Walmart is reporting a strong first quarter this year, beating market estimates. It reported a 22 percent growth in e-commerce sales and a nearly 4 percent jump in transactions, and its first-quarter profit of $5.1 billion was triple last year’s, driven by $161.5 billion in revenue. Its stock rose on the news and hit an all-time high of $64 per share. Isn’t that nice?

As Jordyn Holman writes for the New York Times, Walmart’s growth comes in large part from “a focus on well-heeled shoppers.” She points out that, according to GlobalData, “over the past three years, households earning over $100,000 have provided the biggest gains in Walmart’s market share.”

The company moved beyond household products into groceries in 1988. Today, with high interest rates and inflation, it’s reaping the benefits of an affordability crisis that makes keeping the house stocked with essentials challenging — and dining out even harder for millions. So, while Walmart is selling discount boxer shorts and instant noodles to the serfs, it’s also selling iPads and high-definition televisions (and bougie grocery goods) to higher earners — a market strategy that’s allowing it to become something bigger than a behemoth, especially when coupled with its forays into advertising.