Discount, Dollar Stores Creep Up Top 100 Retailer List, Walmart Remains No. 1
The nation’s top retailers managed to hold on to their coveted spots, even with the troublesome economy, but a new group of companies are sneaking onto the playing field, according to an annual ranking of retailers by sales.
With the economy putting a huge dent in consumers' budgets last year, discount and dollar stores became much more attractive to the American family,
according to the STORES Top 100 Retailers list. Dollar General (#28) climbed seven spots this year, boasting year-over-year revenue growth of 12.8% from 2009 to 2010. North Carolina-based Family Dollar (#45) moved up from #56 in 2009 and Dollar Tree (#61) jumped 15 spots.
Remaining unchanged from last year, the world’s largest retailer, Walmart (#1), and the country’s largest grocery chain, Kroger (#2), once again claimed the top two spots. Walmart’s low prices were the perfect match for consumers’ lightened budgets last year, and Kroger now has more than 3,600 establishments nationwide, the most of any other U.S. grocery chain.
So-called transformational changes, cited by CEO Gregg Steinhafel, are lifting traffic and sales at Target (#3), which climbed from No.5 last year. Walgreens (#4), which now boasts a presence in all 50 states, also jumped two places.
Spots seven through 10 mirror the rankings from last year’s Top 100 list, proving the shaky economy couldn’t budge the well-known brands of CVS Caremark (#7), Lowe’s (#8), Sears Holdings (#9) and Best Buy (#10).
The nation’s largest home improvement and warehouse club chains - #5 Home Depot and #6 Costco, respectively -- round out the top 10.
Making its Top 100 debut is IKEA North America (#92).
“As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart’s U.S. sales are nearly four times larger than number two Kroger, so it’s hard to imagine a list without Walmart at the top anytime in the foreseeable future,” says Mary Brett Whitfield, svp at Kantar Retail. “However, as IKEA’s debut and the movement of the small-format value retailers indicates, there is still plenty of opportunity for the rest of the list to be reshaped as the retail landscape evolves.”
The STORES Top 100 Retailers are ranked by U.S. retail sales, rather than overall corporate revenues. Additional changes include the elimination (in most instances) of gasoline/fueling stations and other non-retail sales. This year’s Top 100 Retailers list was compiled and analyzed by Kantar Retail.
