Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The annual reports for your publicly traded competitors are out, and here is how some of the companies compare.
Walmart, which is still the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, had sales increase by less than 1 percent from the 2015 calendar year to 2016. The company operates about 9,400 more stores worldwide than the second largest retailer on the list, Home Depot, which has 2,278 home centers.
Sears has had steadily declining sales, and experienced the largest year-over-year decrease. Sales dipped 12 percent from 2015 to 2016. The company’s leadership has acknowledged that Sears could be at risk of insolvency if efforts to improve the company fail, according to its 2016 annual report. Due to sales’ downward trend, “substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” the report says.
Amazon is not included in this list, but the e-commerce giant had jaw-dropping sales increases compared to the traditional retailers. Its sales of $136 billion were a 27-percent jump from fiscal 2015.
If Target had been included here, its $69.5 billion in 2016 sales would have ranked the company between Home Depot and Lowe’s. Target is analyzed in-depth here.
