Walmart was started in Arkansas in July 1962. It is a multinational retail corporation with a chain of discount department stores, grocery stores, hypermarkets, etc. Currently, Dough McMillon headed Walmart owns 10593 stores in 24 countries and has a revenue of US$572.8 Billion. Since 2017, the Walton family-owned business organization is officially Walmart, Inc. Walmart is one of the largest retailers and they had acquired Asda, Jet.com, Flipkart, Moosejaw, Bonobos, etc. in their course of growth. Let us know about ‘Walmart And Its Competitors’.
Walmart And Its Competitors – Know More
Sam Walton started Walmart with a Ben Franklin store in 1945. The first “Walmart discount city store” was started in 1963 in Arkansas. Similarly, there are many big brands in the retail market as competitors to Walmart. Whether it’s hypermarkets, supermarkets, or department stores, they all had successfully attracted huge traffic with their exceptional stock collection and notable lower selling price. Some of the brands that have been following a market strategy similar to that of Walmart are Target, Costco, Kroger, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc.
Target
Target Corporation owns a chain of American big-box department stores. They’re the 8th largest retailer in the US with a revenue of US$ 106 billion and a Net income of US$ 4.368 billion. Target Corporation was started by George Dayton in 1902 as a Dayton company. It was John F Geisse who came up with the idea of “Upscale discount retailing” and based on this John along with Douglas Dayton started the first Target store in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota. Now they have its headquarters in Minneapolis, United States.
- Target currently has 1,931 stores all over the US and Canada with a variety of stores including discount store Target, hypermarket “Super Target”, small-format stores, etc. Target corporation employs approximately 409,000 employees in their stores altogether. Similar to Walmart, Target also offers low prices on everyday essential goods and that makes both competitors in the market, even though Target is a mid-range store, unlike Walmart.
Costo
American multinational corporation Costco runs a chain of membership-only retail stores. This fifth largest retailer in the world is owned by the Costco wholesale corporation. They have a revenue of US$ 166.76 billion with a net income of US$ 4.002 billion. The W. Craig Jelinek headed company now has approximately 273,000 employees working for them.
- Costco was started in September 1983 by former Fedmart employees Jim Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman in Seattle, Washington. Currently, they’re headquartered in Washington in the United States, with 828 stores altogether throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia, etc.
Kroger
Ohio headquartered Kroger is an American retail company that owns supermarkets and multi-department stores and operates both directly and through subsidiaries. It was founded in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio by Bernard Kroger. It currently has 2726 stores throughout the US with a revenue of US$ 132.5 billion and a net income of US$ 2.585 billion. They have approximately 465,000 employees working for them. Rodney McMullen has been their current CEO since 2014.
- Kroger has a variety of stores including hypermarkets, supermarkets, superstores, department stores, etc. Along with these they also have some jewelry stores, food processing units, pharmacies, etc. Until 1916, in the Kroger store model stocks were kept behind a counter and products would be delivered by the clerks when asked for. But in 1916 they introduced the self-service shopping store model in their outlets. Kroger has always been known for their innovation and technical advancement.
Home Depot
Home Depot, Inc. is the largest retailer of home improvement supplies, in the US. They own a chain of big-box format stores that offers home improvement supplies such as tools, construction products, appliances, painting equipment, and even services. They were started, with a proposition to build home-improvement superstores, by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah.
- It started with a store in Marietta, Georgia, in 1978. Currently, they have a revenue of US$ 151.16 billion and a net income of US$ 16.42 billion, with 490,600 employees working in the company. It was in 1982 that Home Depot went public and started to branch out from Georgia. And now Home Depot headquartered in Georgia has 2312 stores all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Guam.
Best Buy
Another competitor of Walmart is the American multinational retailer in consumer electronics, Best Buy. It was founded by Richard M Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as a studio specialty store named “sound of music” in St. Paul, Minnesota. Later in 1983, it was rebranded as Best Buy Co, Inc. by emphasizing consumer electronics. It was in 1989 that they introduced the “Concept II” stores. By that, they began to make stores more brightly lit, and almost all the stocks were kept in the showroom rather than in the storeroom. More self-service shopping was promoted, with a smaller number of salespeople, in these stores.
- In 1985 they went public and Best Buy headquartered in Minnesota currently has 1144 stores all over the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Until 2011 they had outlets in China and outlets in Mexico until 2020. They even had stores in Europe until 2012. They have a revenue of US$ 51.76 billion and a net income of US$ 2.45 billion. Corie Barry is the current CEO of Best Buy since 2019. Approximately 105,000 employees work in the Best Buy stores altogether.
Conclusion
Currently, there are many pioneers in the American retail market. Each brand had one way or the other marked its presence in the market and continues to thrive in the field. Whether it’s innovation, marketing, lower price, or quality, most of them have made it to the world market. Some of such exceptional brands are Walmart, Target, Costco, Kroger, Home Depot, Best Buy, and so on. This list goes on with many more prominent names such as Aldi, Lowe’s, IKEA, Walgreens, Tesco, Giant Eagle, and many more.
