Big Three Retailers Devour 17% of Market While Smaller Stores Struggle to Keep Up
Retail’s big fish are making a bigger splash in America’s spending pool — leaving everyone else struggling to stay afloat. Walmart, Amazon, and Costco now control 17% of total domestic retail sales, up from 11% in 2014. That’s mounting pressure on smaller competitors, which are struggling to survive. The trio’s dominance extends beyond market share, accounting for ~57% of all retail sales growth in their last three reported quarters.
- This retail concentration has prompted major US stores to close 57% more locations in 2024, with over 7.3K stores shuttering — the highest number since the pandemic-driven carnage of 2020.
- Traditional grocery stores have watched their food-at-home spending share fall from 66% in 2000 to 54% in 2023, while warehouse clubs and supercenters nearly doubled their share to 23%.
Retail roulette: The gap between retail’s haves and have-nots appears poised to widen further. The big three invested an estimated $47B in capital expenditures in 2023 — roughly four times the combined spending of Target, Best Buy, Kroger, and Albertsons. This financial firepower and their ability to maintain lower prices (supermarket chains charge 21% more than Walmart for equivalent items) suggest that America’s retail consolidation story is far from over — leaving smaller players fighting for survival in an increasingly uneven playing field.
