America is the home of retail. The sector is worth more than $7 trillion, nearly one-fourth of the entire global retail industry, and well ahead of its closest rivals, China and India.
This article was written by Marcus Lu and originally published by Visual Capitalist.
But who are its biggest players?
We visualize the biggest American retailers using data from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Business of Apps.
Ranked: America’s Biggest Retailers
Not only is Walmart the biggest retail store in America, with close to $500 billion in sales, it’s also the biggest retailer in the world, with the company’s global sales crossing $600 billion.
Established in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, the publicly-traded, family-owned business is also the largest single corporate employer in the world, with more than 2 million employees—beating out several state companies like the Indian Railways and the NHS.
Here’s a list of America’s biggest retailers, ranked by their U.S. sales.
| Rank | Company | U.S. Sales (USD Billions) |
RoW Sales (USD Billions) |
Total Sales (USD Billions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walmart | $499 | $102 | $601 |
| 2 | Amazon.com | $233 | $110 | $343 |
| 3 | Costco Wholesale | $163 | $54 | $218 |
| 4 | Kroger | $148 | $0 | $148 |
| 5 | The Home Depot |
$146 | $9 | $155 |
| 6 | Target | $108 | $0 | $108 |
| 7 | CVS Health Corporation |
$107 | $0 | $107 |
| 8 | Walgreens Boots Alliance |
$103 | $13 | $116 |
| 9 | Lowe’s Companies |
$89 | $5 | $94 |
| 10 | Albertsons Companies |
$76 | $0 | $76 |
| 11 | Apple* | $71 | $10 | $80 |
| 12 | Royal Ahold Delhaize |
$57 | $35 | $92 |
| 13 | Publix Super Markets |
$55 | $0 | $55 |
| 14 | Best Buy | $43 | $3 | $46 |
| 15 | Aldi | $40 | $84 | $124 |
*Apple Stores/iTunes revenue.
Amazon’s market cap might dwarf other retailers but its domestic retail sales are less than half of Walmart’s at $233 billion, putting the company solidly in second place.
Coming in third, Costco brought in $163 billion in revenue in 2022 from their 591 stores in the country. Their hot dog and soda combo is a famous example of how what started as a loss leader strategy, is now a brand icon.
How Do American Retailers Do Internationally?
Kroger, which also owns various supermarket chains like Fred Meyer, Food 4 Less, and Fry’s, is in fourth place, with $148 billion in sales. It’s the biggest American retailer with no foreign presence whatsoever.
The below table shows the revenue share between domestic and foreign sources for America’s biggest retailers.
| Rank | Company | U.S. Sales (%) | RoW Sales (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Walmart | 83% | 17% |
| 2 | Amazon.com | 68% | 32% |
| 3 | Costco Wholesale | 75% | 25% |
| 4 | Kroger | 100% | 0% |
| 5 | The Home Depot |
94% | 6% |
| 6 | Target | 100% | 0% |
| 7 | CVS Health Corporation |
100% | 0% |
| 8 | Walgreens Boots Alliance |
89% | 11% |
| 9 | Lowe’s Companies |
95% | 5% |
| 10 | Albertsons Companies |
100% | 0% |
| 11 | Apple | 88% | 12% |
| 12 | Royal Ahold Delhaize |
62% | 38% |
| 13 | Publix Super Markets |
100% | 0% |
| 14 | Best Buy | 93% | 7% |
| 15 | Aldi | 32% | 68% |
Ranked 12th and 15th respectively, Royal Ahold Delhaize (Netherlands) and Aldi (Germany) are the only two companies on the list that are not headquartered in America.
Despite this, Royal Ahold Delhaize earns a greater share of their revenue from their U.S. sales (62%) versus the rest of the world (38%) and operates more than 2,000 stores across 23 states in the country.
Apple: Tech Giant and Retailer
Tech giant Apple stands out amidst the many big-box-stores and supermarkets on this list.
At 11th, Apple Retail made $71 billion in 2022, and nearly one-in-four iPhones in the U.S. that year were sold at an Apple store.
In fact, Apple Retail was started in 2001 after the company’s “store-within-a-store” strategy failed—a strategy that Microsoft and Google still employ.
And every time a new Apple product launches, the lineups outside their 272 stores do quite a bit of marketing for the company.
