When you watch Walmart, you start to wonder where it wants to go with its business model, and whether it has any chance of ever getting there. Two moves that the giant retailer made this week powerfully illustrate this. One move is future-facing and at least somewhat bold, while the other seems aimed at protecting the existing bricks-and-mortar business model even as the chain makes a feint toward online.

First, the half-hearted move. Walmart had been signaling that it would make a big change in how it handles online sales ahead of the holiday shopping season, suggesting that it sees online behemoth Amazon as its arch-rival. And yesterday (Oct. 29), Walmart announced that it was radically improving buy-online-pickup-in-store for the holidays. Great news, was my thought; after all, I had recently gone through a suboptimal experience trying to use Walmart’s buy-online-pickup-in-store service. But my glee was short-lived. Visions that were dancing in my head (Maybe they are going to ding employee salaries for every item that they forget to bring to the customer service pickup area? Perhaps they are adding a large number of additional staffers to keep the lines flowing smoothly?) were quickly dashed.

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