A pic of the foliage

It looks okay to me. Maybe a bigger pot for this plant. Probaby it needs little more water.

Marie

If the caudex is pliably soft, this is not always a sign of rot.
Looks as though the soil mix you use is a peat or cocnut coir based one.
The gritty mix is a very good mix.
Your plant looks to be in a black plastic pot, slid into the Terra Cotta one.
You will have to watch for perched watered as Al has outlines in his outlines
in the peat/coir based mixes.

The caudex can become slightly soft in both cases. Lack of water and rot.
Rick

Yes, I left it in what it was in when i bought it from walmart, and didn't add any soil. I knew i was taking a risk buying from there, but it i couldn't resist. I haven't repotted because i've effectively killed every other one i've had and am paranoid i'll do it again., i'll have to read through the forum for tips. Thank you, i feel more assured that it's not enduring a slow death.

Ya that soil stands out as very water retentive. Walmart has some cheap Terra cotta pots that you might thing if repotting with more gritty soil. After my repots the stress makes my caudexes a tad soft for 2-3 weeks till it gets used to the new soil. If that is just regular top soil I would be very carefully about watering it to much.