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Thrifting is on the rise. Whether fueled by a desire to shop more sustainably, find unique pieces, or save money, consumers have been increasingly turning to secondhand clothing stores for their new threads. And interest in thrift shopping is only expected to grow over the next few years – with some estimates putting the U.S. secondhand market at $73 billion by 2028.
With 2024 nearly at the midway point, we dove into the data to take a closer look at the segment.
The past few years have seen a growing interest among consumers in all things value, and thrift shops have been reaping the benefits. Between January and May 2024, the segment experienced strong monthly year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic growth. And compared to pre-COVID, too, thrift stores drew 29.6% more foot traffic in Q1 2024 than in Q1 2019.
Diving into the visit performance of individual thrift store chains reveals strength across a variety of brands. YoY visits to Goodwill, Crossroads Trading Co., and Savers were consistently elevated between January and May 2024.
Who are the shoppers driving thrift shop visit growth? Analyzing the demographics of thrift store visitors’ trade areas reveals that in 2024, thrift stores serve an economically diverse customer base. Data from the STI: PopStats dataset combined with Placer.ai captured market data shows that Goodwill draws customers from areas with a median household income (HHI) below the nationwide median $76.1K. Savers, for its part, draws shoppers from average-income areas, while Crossroad Trading Co. attracts a high-HHI customer base – likely due to the chain’s strong presence in affluent California and focus on high-end items.
Still, a look at the wider apparel shopping habits of thrift store visitors shows that these shoppers tend to be bargain hunters: Between January and May 2024, visitors to Crossroads Trading Co. and Savers were more likely to visit Goodwill than any other clothing chain. But they – together with Goodwill visitors – also did plenty of shopping at off-price chains like Ross Dress For Less, Marshall’s, and T.J. Maxx. (Crossroad Trading Co., which places a strong emphasis on selling on-trend, high-end items, also saw many of its customers shopping at Macy’s, while Savers visitors were more likely to frequent Kohl’s).
This consistent interest in budget-friendly venues underscores the strong preference for value among the growing ranks of thrift store shoppers
Thrifting is proving its staying power, with visits to major thrift stores outpacing those of other apparel categories. Will the secondhand market continue on its upward trajectory?
Follow Placer.ai to keep up with the latest data-driven retail trends.
Limited-assortment value grocery stores like Aldi and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market have thrived in recent years, as inflation-wary consumers sought out ways to save money at the till.
But how are these chains faring in 2024? Have cooling inflation and increased consumer confidence put a dent in their performance? We dove into the data to find out.
As the name suggests, limited-assortment grocery stores are known for carrying fewer products than traditional grocery stores in a bid to cut down on overhead costs and pass savings on to consumers. These chains also utilize other methods, such as private label brands, opportunistic merchandising, and fewer in-store amenities, to keep prices low.
And foot traffic data shows that in the first part of 2024, consumers continued flocking to these brands to grab groceries at a discount – driving year-over-year (YoY) foot traffic growth that far outperformed that of traditional grocery stores. In May 2024, for example, visits to the overall grocery segment grew by 7.9% YoY, while Aldi and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market experienced YoY growth of 26.3%, 14.3%, and respectively.
Some of this foot traffic growth can be attributed to the two chains’ continued expansion: Aldi added dozens of new stores in 2023 – with hundreds more in the pipeline – and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market also significantly grew its footprint. But the average number of visits to both brands’ individual locations also increased, again outpacing traditional grocery, showing that their expansion is meeting robust demand.
Looking into the loyalty rates of visitors to these limited-assortment value chains provides more reason for optimism for the sector: Over the past three years, Aldi and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market both saw an increase in loyal visits – defined as those made by people who frequented the chains at least four times in a month.
In April 2022, for example, 28.0% of visits to Aldi and 27.0% of visits to Grocery Outlet Bargain Market were made by people who visited the chains at least four times during the month – but by 2024, these shares grew to 30.1% and 30.2%, respectively. A similar trend was observed in May 2024.
Increasingly, it seems, people are doing at least part of their routine weekly grocery shopping at these limited-assortment chains. And with consumers continuing to seek ways to save money, these grocers are well-positioned to continue growing their visit shares.
The limited-assortment, value grocery model continues to prove its staying power, with impressive foot traffic, visits per location, and loyalty rates.
Will the segment continue on its upward trajectory?
Visit Placer.ai to find out.
About the Placer 100 Index for Retail & Dining: The Placer 100 Index for Retail & Dining is a curated, dynamic list of leading chains that often serve as prime tenants for shopping centers and malls. The index includes chains from various industries, such as superstores, grocery, dollar stores, dining, apparel, and more. Among the notable chains featured are Walmart, Target, Costco, Kroger, Ulta Beauty, The Home Depot, McDonald’s, Chipotle, Crunch Fitness, and Trader Joe's. The goal of the list is to provide insight into the wider trends impacting the retail, dining, and shopping center segments.
Foot traffic patterns at leading chains can serve as an interesting proxy for consumer sentiment – offering a glimpse into the overall health of the retail and dining spaces. And analyzing the YoY foot traffic performance of the Placer 100 Index for Retail & Dining over the past twelve months reveals that, for the most part, major retail and dining players have enjoyed consistently strong visit growth. In November and December 2023 – during the height of last year’s holiday shopping season – foot traffic to the chains included in the Index increased 2.9% and 3.7% respectively, compared to the equivalent period of 2022.
And although 2024 opened with a slight, weather-driven YoY decline in visits, retail and dining foot traffic quickly bounced back, finishing out May with a 5.1% increase. This springtime jump was partly due to two special calendar days – Mother’s Day weekend, and Memorial Day weekend – both of which drove bigger visit spikes this year than in 2023.
These robust visitation patterns highlight consumer resilience in the face of headwinds – and may be an encouraging indicator of a thriving summer ahead.
Zooming into the Index’s regional performance during May 2024 uncovers impressive positive YoY visit growth across the nation.
The Midwest led the way, buoyed by strong YoY foot traffic growth in South Dakota (6.7%), Michigan (6.4%), and North Dakota (6.4%). But the two states with the biggest YoY visit boosts – Vermont (7.4%) and New Hampshire (7.0%) – were in the Northeast, and the South and West performed well too. This impressive increase in retail and dining visits was observed across the vast majority of the continental U.S., regardless of population size and local weather conditions. Such widespread growth indicates a robust and uniform recovery in consumer activity nationwide, suggesting that factors beyond regional characteristics, such as slowing inflation and increased consumer confidence, played a significant role in driving this trend.
Drilling down into the rankings of individual chains in the index can highlight some of the key trends shaping retail and dining this year.
Value-oriented retailers – including Aldi, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, and Dollar General, – featured prominently among May’s top performers, both for YoY chain-wide visits and for YoY average visits per location. This robust showing demonstrates the continued draw of budget fare, which has been observed across a wide range of segments – from grocery to apparel.
The quest for savings spilled over into other segments as well. Value gym Crunch Fitness, which grew its footprint significantly over the past year, ranked among the top performers both for overall visits and for visits per location – showcasing the success of its expansion strategy. And casual dining chains Chili’s Grill & Bar and Buffalo Wild Wings also made the list, with YoY visit growth likely driven by successful value promotions.
Indeed, Chili's Grill & Bar – propelled by its hit Big Smasher Burger promotion – has emerged as this month's leading chain, topping the charts both for overall visits (26.3%) and for average visits per location (26.1%).
Hungry, budget-conscious diners can get Chili’s Big Smasher as part of the chain’s signature 3 for Me deal, which lets diners choose a beverage, starter, and main course starting at $10.99. And the offering, which was launched on April 29th, 2024, has become a sensation – going viral on TikTok and garnering significant media attention.
The promotion is competitively priced against QSR offerings, at a time when fast-food chains have seen slowing sales due to cutbacks by inflation-wary consumers. Chili's has been praised for delivering exceptional value – and taking a closer look at weekly visitation trends shows that this strategy is paying off. Chili’s saw a surge of weekly visit growth beginning the week of the promotion (April 29th), and has continued thriving since. This highlights the importance of understanding consumer needs and finding ways to deliver value.
Will June continue to see a rise in retail and dining visits as summer approaches? Will the success of retail and dining foot traffic remain evenly spread across regions, even as some areas are more affected by summer heat? And will value-oriented retailers continue to dominate the ten top performers in retail and dining?
Visit Placer.ai to find out.
It’s no secret that the restaurant category is starting to get more promotional. As consumers–especially lower income consumers–have shifted toward substitute food retail channels like value grocers, warehouse clubs, and convenience stores due to the compounded effect of food-away-from home inflation, restaurant chains across all tiers are resorting to increased promotional activity to drive visit trends.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed that several casual dining chains had seen success through all-you-can eat and other deep discount promotions. Last week, we noted that Chili’s had been outperforming broader casual-dining category averages through its value messaging. We also noted the success of Buffalo Wild Wings All-You-Can Eat wings promotions on Monday and Wednesdays starting in mid-May. Below, we show visit trends to Buffalo Wild Wings on Mondays and Wednesdays compared to their year-to-date averages since the beginning of March. The promotion has helped to drive incremental visits on two traditionally slower days. During May, the chain was seeing visits greater than 30% its normal daily visit count for Mondays and Wednesdays during the earlier part of the promotion and exceeding 50% during the latter part of the month. While it's unlikely that this promotion will be permanent–restaurants have to work with their suppliers ahead of time to make sure they have sufficient food for promotions like this–but given the success, the chain may consider running during other months (and potentially other days of the week) later this year.
However, as we noted in our recap of this year’s National Restaurant Association show, QSR chains have started to get more promotional ahead as they look to recapture visit share lost to value grocers, dollar stores, and c-stores (especially within lower-income trade areas). McDonald’s will launch a national $5 value menu promotion on June 25, but it’s clear that other QSR chains are already seeing success with their competing $5 promotions. Below, we show year-over-year weekly visit trends from March through early June for the major QSR burger chains. Burger King launched its own $5 Your Way Meal value menu this past week, and has seen visit trends accelerate since then. Starbucks–which has historically stayed away from discounts as a way to protect its premium brand position–also surprised the industry by announcing a $5-$7 “pairings menu” this week.
Easing commodity costs have allowed restaurants to get more promotional, although when paired with rising labor costs (especially in California, which we covered last week), it does set up an environment where restaurant profits will likely be squeezed over the next several months. Also, substitute food retail channels are likely to introduce their own price reductions in the months to come (as we’ve already seen from Walmart).
Summer has unofficially arrived, and with that comes the desire to relax, unwind and travel. And despite some of the economic uncertainty still facing consumers, 2024 is off to a surprising start for traffic in certain parts of retail. According to AAA, auto traffic growth for Memorial Day weekend was projected to grow by 4% compared to last year and by almost 2% versus 2019. Car travel has long been seen as the value-based travel method across the U.S., and who can forget the allure of the “summer road trip”. But inflationary pressures may have made it less appealing over the past few years. In the most recent consumer price index for May 2024, a drop in gasoline prices was a large positive contributor to the overall rate of 3.3%, which could provide a stronger consumer push for summer car travel.
With the positive momentum in auto traffic and gas prices, gas station and convenience store traffic has greatly benefited since Memorial Day weekend. In fact, visits to chains from May 20 to June 10 this year increased by 11% compared to the same weeks in 2023 and 15% versus 2022. Traffic to convenience stores and gas chains is up almost 30% compared to the same weeks in 2019. Traffic growth steadily climbed over the course of the three weekends measured, and the weeks had some of the highest growth rates so far in 2024 with the exception of a week in March. Even with the projected increase in auto traffic across the country, convenience and gas is the summer blockbuster, building on the consumer trends of the past year and the successful strategies of various retailers.
Wawa, in particular, saw strong visit patterns in the first unofficial few weeks of summer travel. The chain at a total level is up an impressive 14% year-over-year for the measured weeks. Looking at Wawa’s performance across various states, Florida drove much of the growth in traffic as the weather heats up, and outperformed some of the brand’s stronghold states like Pennsylvania & New Jersey. Average dwell times at Wawa locations in Florida are almost a minute higher than the chain average, highlighting that stores are not only pulling in more visits, but keeping visitors in-store for longer. The strong performance of the Florida locations, even during the off season, corroborates the brand’s investment in expansion across the state. One might suspect that Wawa is well positioned heading into the remainder of the summer with its coastal strategy.
Will C-stores continue to grow traffic as we officially enter the summer season? All signs point to yes, even if gas prices rise due to increased demand. Chains have done a fantastic job of enticing consumers with unique food offerings and might become the must-visit destination before heading to the beach this summer.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. operates a portfolio that includes some of the biggest names in full-service dining, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V’s Prime Seafood.
How are these restaurants performing as Q3 2024 approaches? We took a closer look at the location analytics to find out which restaurant chains are thriving in today’s challenging economic climate.
Darden’s three largest restaurant chains – Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen – are some of the best-known names in casual, full-service dining. These chains have a strong presence across the country and have experienced mainly positive YoY foot traffic this year so far.
Although foot traffic was lower YoY in January and April 2024, these dips can be attributed to external factors, such as January’s inclement weather and an April calendar shift (i.e. the timing of Easter, as well as the extra Saturday in April 2023). And in May the three chains quickly rebounded, ending the month with respective YoY visit increases of 2.4%, 6.4%, and 2.3%.
Darden operates various smaller brands offering different dining styles and price points, ranging from upscale options like Eddie V’s and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse to more casual spots like Bahama Breeze and Yard House. These smaller chains also experienced strong visitation patterns in early 2024 – with May YoY visits up between 3.9% and 8.5%.
Darden’s strong February and May showings were likely fueled, in part, by two distinctly important days on the Darden restaurant calendar: Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
In absolute terms, Olive Garden – Darden’s largest chain by far – drew the most visits on both holidays as compared to a January 1, 2024 baseline, claiming the top spot this year as America’s favorite Mother’s Day destination. But on a relative basis, Darden’s premium brands Eddie V’s and Ruth Chris experienced the biggest visit spikes, as people splurged on celebratory outings. And laid-back chain Bahama Breeze saw a sustained visit boost from Valentine’s Day through Mother’s Day, likely owing to its strong presence in Florida – making it an attractive destination for the snowbirds and vacationers who visit the state during the winter.
And surprisingly, even casual dining venue Yard House – known for its beer and sports atmosphere rather than romantic setting – experienced a Valentine’s Day visit boost. This suggests that there is a tangible benefit from these holidays across a wide range of dining styles – and restaurant operators can use these insights to encourage visits on such occasions.
Darden continues to attract customers to its restaurants in spite of a challenging economy by offering a variety of dining choices and capitalizing on popular dining-out occasions such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
Will the company’s visit growth continue to trend upward as 2024 wears on?
Follow Placer.ai for the latest data-driven dining insights.
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1) Broad-based growth: All four grocery formats grew year-over-year in Q2 2025, with traditional grocers posting their first rebound since early 2024.
2) Value grocers slow: After leading during the 2022–24 trade-down wave, value grocer growth has decelerated as that shift matures.
3) Fresh formats surge: Now the fastest-growing segment, fueled by affluent shoppers seeking health, wellness, and convenience.
4) Bifurcation widens: Growth concentrated at both the low-income (value) and high-income (fresh) ends, highlighting polarized spending.
5) Shopping missions diverge: Short trips are rising, supporting fresh formats, while traditional grocers retain loyal stock-up customers and value chains capture fill-in trips through private labels.
6) Traditional grocers adapt: H-E-B and Harris Teeter outperformed by tailoring strategies to their core geographies and demographics.Bifurcation of Consumer Spending Help Fresh Format Lead Grocery Growth
Grocery traffic across all four major categories – value grocers, fresh format, traditional grocery, ethnic grocers – was up year over year in Q2 2025 as shoppers continue to engage with a wide range of grocery formats. Traditional grocery posted its first YoY traffic increase since Q1 2024, while ethnic grocers maintained their steady pattern of modest but consistent gains.
Value grocers, which dominated growth through most of 2024 as shoppers prioritized affordability, continued to expand but have now ceded leadership to fresh-format grocers. Rising food costs between 2022 and 2024 drove many consumers to chains like Aldi and Lidl, but much of this “trade-down” movement has already occurred. Although price sensitivity still shapes consumer choices – keeping the value segment on an upward trajectory – its growth momentum has slowed, making it less of a driver for the overall sector.
Fresh-format grocers have now taken the lead, posting the strongest YoY traffic gains of any category in 2025. This segment, anchored by players like Sprouts, appeals to the highest-income households of the four categories, signaling a growing influence of affluent shoppers on the competitive grocery landscape. Despite accounting for just 7.0% of total grocery visits in H1 2025, the segment’s rapid gains point to a broader shift: premium brands emphasizing health and wellness are emerging as the primary engine of growth in the grocery sector.
The fact that value grocers and fresh-format grocers – segments with the lowest and highest median household incomes among their customer bases – are the two categories driving the most growth underscores how the bifurcation of consumer spending is playing out in the grocery space as well. On one end, price-sensitive shoppers continue to seek out affordable options, while on the other, affluent consumers are fueling demand for premium, health-oriented formats. This dual-track growth pattern highlights how widening economic divides are reshaping competitive dynamics in grocery retail.
1) Broad-based growth: All four grocery categories posted YoY traffic gains in Q2 2025.
2) Traditional grocery rebound: First YoY increase since Q1 2024.
3) Ethnic grocers: Continued steady but modest upward trend.
4) Value grocers: Still growing, but slowing after most trade-down activity already occurred (2022–24).
5) Fresh formats: Now the fastest-growing segment, driven by affluent shoppers and interest in health & wellness.
6) Market shift: Premium, health-oriented brands are becoming the new growth driver in grocery.
7) Bifurcation of spending: Growth at both value and fresh-format grocers highlights a polarization in consumer spending patterns that is reshaping grocery competition.
Over the past two years, short grocery trips (under 10 minutes) have grown far more quickly than longer visits. While they still make up less than one-quarter of all U.S. grocery trips, their steady expansion suggests this behavioral shift is here to stay and that its full impact on the industry has yet to be realized.
One format particularly aligned with this trend is the fresh-format grocer, where average dwell times are shorter than in other categories. Yet despite benefiting from the rise of convenience-driven shopping, fresh formats attract the smallest share of loyal visitors (4+ times per month). This indicates they are rarely used for a primary weekly shop. Instead, they capture supplemental trips from consumers looking for specific needs – unique items, high-quality produce, or a prepared meal – who also value the ability to get in and out quickly.
In contrast, leading traditional grocers like H-E-B and Kroger thrive on a classic supermarket model built around frequent, comprehensive shopping trips. With the highest share of loyal visitors (38.5% and 27.6% respectively), they command a reliable customer base coming for full grocery runs and taking time to fill their carts.
Value grocers follow a different, but equally effective playbook. Positioned as primary “fill-in” stores, they sit between traditional and fresh formats in both dwell time and visit frequency. Many rely on limited assortments and a heavy emphasis on private-label goods, encouraging shoppers to build larger baskets around basics and store brands. Still, the data suggests consumers reserve their main grocery hauls for traditional supermarkets with broader selections, while using value grocers to stretch budgets and stock up on essentials.
1) Short trips surge: Under-10-minute visits have grown fastest, signaling a lasting behavioral shift.
2) Fresh formats thrive on convenience: Small footprints, prepared foods, and specialty items align with quick missions.
3) Traditional grocers retain loyalty: Traditional grocers such as H-E-B and Kroger attract frequent, comprehensive stock-up trips.
4) Value grocers fill the middle ground: Limited assortments and private label drive larger baskets, but main hauls remain with traditional supermarkets.
5) Fresh formats as supplements: Fresh format grocers such as The Fresh Market capture quick, specialized trips rather than weekly shops.
While broad market trends favor value and fresh-format grocers, certain traditional grocers are proving that a tailored strategy is a powerful tool for success. In the first half of 2025, H-E-B and Harris Teeter significantly outperformed their category's modest 0.6% average year-over-year visit growth, posting impressive gains of 5.6% and 2.8%, respectively. Their success demonstrates that even in a polarizing environment, there is ample room for traditional formats to thrive by deeply understanding and catering to a specific target audience.
These two brands achieve their success with distinctly different, yet equally focused, demographic strategies. H-E-B, a Texas powerhouse, leans heavily into major metropolitan areas like Austin and San Antonio. This urban focus is clear, with 32.6% of its visitors coming from urban centers and their peripheries, far above the category average. Conversely, Harris Teeter has cultivated a strong following in suburban and satellite cities in the South Atlantic region, drawing a massive 78.3% of its traffic from these areas. This deliberate targeting shows that knowing your customer's geography and lifestyle remains a winning formula for growth.
1) Traditional grocers can still be competitive: H-E-B (+5.6% YoY) and Harris Teeter (+2.8% YoY) outpaced the category average of +0.6% in H1 2025.
2) H-E-B’s strategy: Strong urban focus, with 32.6% of traffic from major metro areas like Austin and San Antonio.
3) Harris Teeter’s strategy: Suburban and satellite city focus, with 78.3% of traffic from South Atlantic suburbs.
1. The hypergrowth of Costco, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General between 2019 and 2025 has fundamentally changed the brick-and-mortar retail landscape.
2. Overall visits to Target and Walmart have remained essentially stable even as traffic to the new retail giants skyrocketed – so the increased competition is not necessarily coming at legacy giants' expense. Instead, each retail giant is filling a different need, and success now requires excelling at specific shopping missions rather than broad market dominance.
3. Cross-shopping has become the new normal, with Walmart and Target maintaining their popularity even as their relative visit shares decline, creating opportunities for complementary rather than purely competitive strategies.
4. Dollar stores are rapidly graduating from "fill-in" destinations to primary shopping locations, signaling a fundamental shift in how Americans approach everyday retail.
5. Walmart still enjoys the highest visit frequency, but the other four chains – and especially Dollar General – are gaining ground in this realm.
6. Geographic and demographic specialization is becoming the key differentiator, as each chain carves out distinct niches rather than competing head-to-head across all markets and customer segments.
Evolving shopper priorities, economic pressures, and new competitors are reshaping how and where Americans buy everyday goods. And as value-focused players gain ground, legacy retail powerhouses are adapting their strategies in a bid to maintain their visit share. In this new consumer reality, shoppers no longer stick to one lane, creating a complex ecosystem where loyalty, geography, and cross-visitation patterns – not just market share – define who is truly winning.
This report explores the latest retail traffic data for Walmart, Target, Costco, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General to decode what consumers want from retail giants in 2025. By analyzing visit patterns, loyalty trends, and cross-shopping shifts, we reveal how fast-growing chains are winning over consumers and uncover the strategies helping legacy players stay competitive in today's value-driven retail landscape.
In 2019, Walmart and Target were the two major behemoths in the brick-and-mortar retail space. And while traffic to these chains remains close to 2019 levels, overall visits to Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Costco have increased 36.6% to 45.9% in the past six years. Much of the growth was driven by aggressive store expansions, but average visits per location stayed constant (in the case of Dollar Tree) or grew as well (in the case of Dollar General and Costco). This means that these chains are successfully filling new stores with visitors – consumers who in the past may have gone to Walmart or Target for at least some of the items now purchased at wholesale clubs and dollar stores.
This substantial increase in visits to Costco, Dollar General, and Dollar Tree has altered the competitive landscape in which Walmart and Target operate. In 2019, 55.9% of combined visits to the five retailers went to Walmart. Now, Walmart’s relative visit share is less than 50%. Target received the second-highest share of visits to the five retailers in 2019, with 15.9% of combined traffic to the chains. But Between January and July 2025, Dollar General received more visits than Target – even though the discount store had received just 12.1% of combined visits in 2019.
Some of the growth of the new retail giants could be attributed to well-timed expansion. But the success of these chains is also due to the extreme value orientation of U.S. consumers in recent years. Dollar General, Dollar Tree, and Costco each offer a unique value proposition, giving today's increasingly budget-conscious shoppers more options.
Walmart’s strategy of "everyday low prices" and its strongholds in rural and semi-rural areas reflect its emphasis on serving broad, value-focused households – often catering to essential, non-discretionary shopping.
Dollar General serves an even larger share of rural and semi-rural shoppers than Walmart, following its strategy of bringing a curated selection of everyday basics to underserved communities. The retailer's packaging is typically smaller than Walmart's, which allows Dollar General to price each item very affordably – and its geographic concentration in rural and semi-rural areas also highlights its direct competition to Walmart.
By contrast, Target and Costco both compete for consumer attention in suburban and small city settings, where shopper profiles tilt more toward families seeking one-stop-shopping and broader discretionary offerings. But Costco's audience skews slightly more affluent – the retailer attracts consumers who can afford the membership fees and bulk purchasing requirements – and its visit growth may be partially driven by higher income Target shoppers now shopping at Costco.
Dollar Tree, meanwhile, showcases a uniquely balanced real estate strategy. The chain's primary strength lies in suburban and small cities but it maintains a solid footing in both rural and urban areas. The chain also offers a unique value proposition, with a smaller store format and a fixed $1.25 price point on most items. So while the retailer isn't consistently cheaper than Walmart or Dollar General across all products, its convenience and predictability are helping it cement its role as a go-to chain for quick shopping trips or small quantities of discretionary items. And its versatile, three-pronged geographic footprint allows it to compete across diverse markets: Dollar Tree can serve as a convenient, quick-trip alternative to big-box retailers in the suburbs while also providing essential value in both rural and dense urban communities.
As each chain carves out distinct geographic and demographic niches, success increasingly depends on being the best option for particular shopping missions (bulk buying, quick trips, essential needs) rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
Still, despite – or perhaps due to – the increased competition, shoppers are increasingly spreading their visits across multiple retailers: Cross-shopping between major chains rose significantly between 2019 and 2025. And Walmart remains the most popular brick-and-mortar retailer, consistently ranking as the most popular cross-shopping destination for visitors of every other chain, followed by Target.
This creates an interesting paradox when viewed alongside the overall visit share shift. Even as Walmart and Target's total share of visits has declined, their importance as a secondary stop has actually grown. This suggests that the legacy retail giants' dip in market share isn't due to shoppers abandoning them. Instead, consumers are expanding their shopping routines by visiting other growing chains in addition to their regular trips to Walmart and Target, effectively diluting the giants' share of a larger, more fragmented retail landscape.
Cross-visitation to Costco from Walmart, Target, and Dollar Tree also grew between 2019 and 2025, suggesting that Costco is attracting a more varied audience to its stores.
But the most significant jumps in cross-visitation went to Dollar Tree and Dollar General, with cross-visitation to these chains from Target, Walmart, and Costco doubling or tripling over the past six years. This suggests that these brands are rapidly graduating from “fill-in” fare to primary shopping destinations for millions of households.
The dramatic rise in cross-visitation to dollar stores signals an opportunity for all retailers to identify and capitalize on specific shopping missions while building complementary partnerships rather than viewing every chain as direct competition.
Walmart’s status as the go-to destination for essential, non-discretionary spending is clearly reflected in its exceptional loyalty rates – nearly half its visitors return at least three times per month on average -between January to July 2025, a figure virtually unchanged since 2019. This steady high-frequency visitation underscores how necessity-driven shopping anchors customer routines and keeps Walmart atop the retail loyalty ranks.
But the data also reveals that other retail giants – and Dollar General in particular – are steadily gaining ground. Dollar General's increased visit frequency is largely fueled by its strategic emphasis on adding fresh produce and other grocery items, making it a viable everyday stop for more households and positioning it to compete more directly with Walmart.
Target also demonstrates a notable uptick in loyal visitors, with its share of frequent shoppers visiting at least three times a month rising from 20.1% to 23.6% between 2019 and 2025. This growth may suggest that its strategic initiatives – like the popular Drive Up service, same-day delivery options, and an appealing mix of essentials and exclusive brands – are successfully converting some casual shoppers into repeat customers.
Costco stands out for a different reason: while overall visits increased, loyalty rates remained essentially unchanged. This speaks to Costco’s unique position as a membership-based outlet for targeted bulk and premium-value purchases, where the shopping behavior of new visitors tends to follow the same patterns as those of its already-loyal core. As a result, trip frequency – rooted largely in planned stock-ups – remains remarkably consistent even as the warehouse giant grows foot traffic overall.
Dollar Tree currently has the smallest share of repeat visitors but is improving this metric. As it successfully encourages more frequent trips and narrows the loyalty gap with its larger rivals, it's poised to become an increasing source of competition for both Target and Costco.
The increase in repeat visits and cross-shopping across the five retail giants showcases consumers' current appetite for value-oriented mass merchants and discount chains. And although the retail giants landscape may be more fragmented, the data also reveals that the pie itself has grown significantly – so the increased competition does not necessarily need to come at the expense of legacy retail giants.
The retail landscape of 2025 demands a fundamental shift from zero-sum competition to strategic complementarity, where success lies in owning specific shopping missions rather than fighting for total market dominance. Retailers that forego attempting to compete on every front and instead clearly communicate their mission-specific value propositions – whether that's emergency runs, bulk essentials, or family shopping experiences – may come out on top.
