According to the just-released list of top 100 retailers compiuled by the National Retail Federation and Triversity, Inc. Wal-Mart, with 1999 sales of $165 billion, was 3.6 times larger than its nearest competitor, Kroger supermarkets, which had sales of $45 billion. When Kroger bought out the Fred Meyer chain this year, it moved into the number 2 spot, nosing out Sears, which had 1999 sales of $41 billion. The other top 10 retailers include: Home Depot, 4; Albertson’s, 5; Kmart, 6; Target, 7; JCPenney, 8; Safeway, 9; Costco, 10. Other notables on the top 100 list include; CVS at 13, Lowe’s at 15, Rite Aid at 18, Circuit City at 20, Best Buy at 21, Toys R Us at 22, Gap at 23, , Meijer at 28, Staples at 29, Radio Shack at 44, BJs at 46, Menard at 48, Montgomery Ward at 59, Amazon.com at 93, and Homebase at 95. The largest percentage growth in sales was in the discount stores (+20%), followed by drug stores (+14.7%), apparel chains (+13.1%) , supermarkets (+11.2%), home improvement stores (+9.9%) and department stores at (5.3%) . According to the new report, retailers had a “stellar performance” in 1999. Of the top 5 stores, 3 out of 5 (Wal-Mart, Kroger and Albertson’s) are grocery stores. On the local community front, citizens fighting big box retail stores also had a stellar performance. Sprawl-Busters now has a list of over 120 communities that have stopped the retail giants from propagating.
The Triversity Top 100 Retailers says that “Wal-Mart remains the nation’s largest retailer. In 1999, however, it put even more distance between itself and its nearest competitor posting sales of $165 billion, up more than 20% from 1998, and increasing the number of store openings by 13.5%. Wal-Mart is also number one in the “Sprawl-Busters Most Opposed” list for 1999, having tallied the highest number of store battles in the nation. Home Depot ranks number two in the Sprawl-Busters Opposition list. More citizens are fighting these two stores than any other retailers in America.
