Placer.ai: Retail giants continue gaining share of store visits
Physical retail is increasingly being defined by a small group of dominant players.
The share of physical retail traffic captured by Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale and Dollar General rose from 16.8% in 2019 to 17.5% in the first quarter of 2026, signaling continued sector consolidation, according to Placer.ai’s new white paper, “Physical Retail in 2026.”
Placer.ai says that these larger players benefit from “superior data, stronger vendor leverage and operational efficiencies” that are setting them apart from competitors.
Costco and Dollar General are seeing the strongest visit growth among retail giants, supported by both store growth and rising visits per location. In 2025, Placer.ai found that visits per store exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 18.1% for Costco and 10.2% for Dollar General, with both brands also seeing steady increases in their share of total brick-and-mortar retail chain visits.
America’s biggest retailer, Walmart, accounted for 9.7% of traffic to major brick-and-mortar chains last year. While the chain’s share of visits declined slightly in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, it has held steady over the past three years. After remaining essentially flat in 2025, average visits per location to Walmart grew 3.5% year over year to start the year, with visits rising in almost all U.S. markets.
Placer.ai noted that while Target’s visit share has remained relatively flat over the past three years, early 2026 trends point to emerging signs of recovery. Visits in the first quarter were up 8.3% compared to the first quarter in 2019.
Dollar General, Target and Costco each attract distinct audience segments, according to the white paper. Dollar General attracts a disproportionately high share of the “Mature and Retired Living” segment, while Costco leads among family households, with Target also over-indexing with this group.
Among younger “Contemporary Households,” meanwhile – a segment encompassing singles, married couples without children, and non-family households – Target commands the highest share.
[READ MORE: Study: Specialty and discount grocers outperforming traditional competitors]
"Physical retail is increasingly defined by a small group of dominant players – Walmart, Target, Costco Wholesale and Dollar General – that span grocery, essentials, and discretionary categories at a scale no other retailers can match,” said Placer.ai. “These chains serve as bellwethers of consumer behavior, revealing where Americans are spending, how often they shop, and what drives their decisions. Understanding their visitation patterns sheds light on the key dynamics shaping both their performance and the broader blueprint for retail success in 2026."
