Kroger, Albertsons both make major moves in Top 100 Retailers list

The National Retail Federation has released its 2023 Top 100 Retailers list — compared to last year, some grocers moved ahead, while others fell behind.

Most notable? Kroger went from the No. 5 spot in 2022 to No. 4 this year, pushing aside The Home Depot. Walmart retained the No. 1 spot, following by Amazon and Costco.

According to the list, Kroger had had a 7.5% increase in U.S. retail sales year-over-year (2022 vs. 2021) and a slight decrease of U.S. store growth.

Albertsons also saw a healthy gain, moving from No. 14 in 2022 to No. 10 this year. Aldi suffered the biggest drop among grocers, falling sixth to 15 despite a 4.3% year-over-year increase in store growth. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Target, and CVS experienced little change and all three remained in the top 10. Target did move up from No. 8 to No. 6.  

The Top 100 Retailers are ranked by past 52/53-week annual retail sales, which are used to rank the companies. Several estimation techniques based on public information are used to come up with the retail sales figures (tracked in the U.S. only). Due to the National Retail Federation’s formula, the figures do not always match official public filing reports. 

Company revenues from non-retailing operating segments are removed unless noted, as are fuel sales. Selection criteria for the list is based on Kantar’s Retail IQ integrated research methodology, which includes retail coverage, retailer coverage, and depth of coverage. 

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