Week 7 BOC: Largest Retailers

One of the big questions is what is the largest retailer in the United States as well s in the World? Walmart is considered to be one of the largest retailers in both the world and the United States.  “Wal-mart's global retail sales total led $421 billion in 2010, and the U.S. accounted for 72.9% of its overall sales. The chain ran 4,358 stores in 2010 up 1.3% from the previous year. “(http://www.businessinsider.com) Since 2010, and previous years as well, Walmart has been consider to be one of the largest retailer throughout the world. In 2010 Walmart’s US retail sales were $307.7 billion, in just one year their stock increased 11.38%. Walmart is one of the retail companies that are considered to be one of the largest retailers, although they are not the largest retailer of food, music, and fashion.  The Kroger Company is one of the top largest food retailers in the United States with retail sales of $92.17 billion in 2012. “Kroger moved up one position to become the fifth largest retail chain in the world. It is no small feat to overtake Germany’s largest discount store chain and lead with the Costco Wholesale chain, which also sells a significant amount of groceries and food products.” (http://retailindustry.about.com) Kroger has proven to everyone in the United States as well as the world why they are in the first five places of the largest retailers in the world. Target and Costco in the United States for the year of 2012 they have been very close in retail sales. Target’s retail sales were $71.96 billion and for Costco it was $71.04 billion. For the music industry, Apple/ Itunes is considering to be one of the largest music sellers in the United States as well as in the World. For the United States the second largest retailer to sell music is walmart, but in Europe the second largest is Spotify. For the fashion industry the largest retailer is Inditex, as we know as Zara. “In March, Inditex reported a significant 22 percent rise in full year net profit, to €2.4 billion, largely thanks to its rapid expansion into other markets that helped it pull away from dependence on Europe amid its economic crisis.”( http://www.ibtimes.com) Although there are different retailers that focus on different products, Walmart is one of the retailers that have more retail sales throughout the United States and the world.

Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-top-15-retailers-2011-7?op=1
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/topics/e-commerce/americas-largest-retailers-brick-and-mortars-dominate-30857/attachment/stores-top-10-us-retailers-in-2012-july2013/
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/worldslargestretailers/a/us-2013-worlds-largest_biggest_best_retail_grocery-stores-supermarkets_chains_ranking.htm
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2008/04/apple-passes-wal-mart-now-1-music-retailer-in-us/
http://www.ibtimes.com/inditex-worlds-largest-fashion-retailer-posts-weakest-profit-growth-years-cool-europe-spring-kept
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/us_2013_worlds-largest_retail_companies_chains_retailers_biggest_American_globalpower_2.htm