There’s nothing quite as American as Walmart.
The world’s largest retailer employs about 1.5 million Americans, or about 1% of the total private-sector workforce in the US; it is the biggest private sector employer in 19 states. The close-to-$500 billion in annual revenue it makes means that Walmart sells more than Apple, Amazon and Microsoft combined. And new research shows just how much it touches the lives of all Americans.
NPD Group, a market research organization, which tracks millions of online and in-store receipts, says that 95% of all US consumers shopped at a Walmart store in 2016. By comparison, Amazon reached less than half of all US consumers last year—at 42%.
McDonald’s and Target each reached over 80% of all US consumers last year.
NPD says that Chick-fil-A was the biggest gainer from restaurants in the top 25, with a 5 percentage-point increase to 47% in 2016. Dollar Tree was the biggest gainer in retailers, up 3 percentage points to 71%.