The biggest retailers in America are growing larger, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The three biggest retailers by revenue in the U.S.—Costco, Walmart and Amazon—accounted for about 11% of total retail sales back in 2014, based on their reported figures measured against national retail sales data from the Commerce Department.
Their share of the market has been growing over the past decade. In their last three reported quarters, the behemoths selling everything from groceries to appliances made up about 17% of retail sales and roughly 57% of retail sales growth over that period.
Supermarkets have been a casualty of the big retailers’ rise. Grocery stores accounted for about two-thirds of food-at-home spending in the U.S. in 2000, but that share shrank to 54% in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Over the same period, warehouse clubs and supercenters such as Costco and Walmart nearly doubled their market share to 23%.
