20 Largest Retailers in the United States by Sales

Walmart remains the largest retailer in the United States by a substantial margin. The National Retail Federation's 2025 Top 100 Retailers ranking, compiled by Kantar using 2024 US retail sales, put Walmart at $568.7 billion. Amazon ranked second at $273.66 billion, followed by Costco, Kroger and Home Depot.

The NRF methodology is useful because it focuses on US retail sales rather than total corporate revenue. That distinction matters for companies such as Amazon, CVS Health and Apple, whose wider businesses include cloud computing, healthcare services or hardware sold through channels beyond their own retail operations.

Walmart's lead is still enormous

Walmart's US retail sales were more than twice Amazon's in the NRF ranking. Its scale comes from a network of supercentres, Sam's Club locations, grocery sales and a growing ecommerce operation. The company has spent heavily on automation and fulfilment to connect stores with digital orders, turning its physical footprint into an online distribution advantage.

Amazon has the opposite history. It began online and has gradually added physical retail through Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and other formats. The two companies are converging on a model in which digital ordering and physical logistics matter equally.

Grocery explains much of the top 20

Costco, Kroger, Albertsons, Publix, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize USA and other grocery groups rank highly because food purchases are frequent and relatively resilient. Grocery generates lower margins than many discretionary categories, but enormous volumes create scale.

The sector is also consolidating around sophisticated supply chains, private-label products and loyalty data. Retailers that can forecast demand accurately and control distribution costs gain an advantage even when their stores look similar to customers.

Home improvement and pharmacy remain major categories

Home Depot and Lowe's are two of the largest specialised retailers in the country, supported by both consumer and professional contractor demand. CVS and Walgreens combine retail pharmacy with healthcare services and prescription economics, which makes direct comparison with general merchandise chains less straightforward.

These companies illustrate why sales ranking is only one view of competitive strength. A retailer with high sales can still have thin margins, while a smaller specialist may generate stronger returns on invested capital.

The top retailers are becoming technology companies too

Large retail groups now operate advertising networks, membership programmes, payment systems, automated warehouses and large software teams. Walmart Connect and Amazon Ads turn customer traffic into advertising revenue, while Costco's membership model creates recurring fee income and unusually strong loyalty.

Retail scale therefore creates second-order businesses that were less important a decade ago. The largest retailers are no longer simply companies with the most stores. They are data, logistics and media businesses built on top of enormous transaction volumes.

How to read retailer rankings

US retail sales are the cleanest measure for comparing domestic scale, but they do not capture profitability, international reach or digital growth. A retailer can move up the ranking because of acquisitions, inflation or store openings without becoming more efficient.

For investors and suppliers, the ranking is best treated as a map of market power. The companies near the top have enough purchasing volume, customer data and logistics infrastructure to influence suppliers and reshape entire categories.