Walmart Still Atop Leaderboard Over Giant; Affordability Is Key
Affordability. As we publish our 48th annual Retail Market Study for the Mid-Atlantic, that word became increasingly important to both consumers and retailers as economic struggles continued to impact most merchants in the 89-county region.
Walmart again paced all retailers selling food and drugs, enjoying one of the best years of all operators in the region, despite not opening any new stores in the $64.4 billion marketing area. The “Bentonville Behemoth” delivered some of the best comp store sales in the Mid-Atlantic, particularly powered by its 94 SuperCenters in DE, MD, PA and VA. However, over the next 12 months, Walmart plans on upgrading 61 of its 157 stores in the market.
Giant Food, which until last year led all retailers in the Mid-Atlantic, produced decent comp store sales but like many other traditional supermarket chains, found that overstoring and fierce competition, primarily for discount operators made significant gains hard to find. An additional factor this year for merchants operating around Washington DC was the significant amount of jobs cutting by the federal government. However, the Landover-based Ahold Delhaize USA brand continued to dominate Baltimore-Washington market, the region’s largest marketing area.
The market study 12-month measuring period runs from April 1, 2025, to March 31, 2026,
Here’s the statistical breakdown of the top 10 retailers in the Mid-Atlantic market.
As noted, while Walmart once again didn’t open any new units, the company’s strong price image fueled significant comp store sales increases and helped the country’s largest retailer (and national grocery leader, too) maintain its leadership position among the 58 retailers we surveyed. We estimated that the Bentonville, AR company posted estimated extrapolated sales of $6.77 billion, a solid gain over last year’s extrapolated volume of $6.56 billion.
For Giant Food, it was another year of defending its turf against discounters like Walmart, Aldi and Costco, while gaining some market share versus Safeway, Harris Teeter and Shoppers Food. During the past 12 months, Giant opened a new store in Parkville, MD, and for its 160 stores, sales are estimated to be $6.63 billion, an approximate 2 percent increase over last year’s total.
CVS remained the leader among all drug retailers and increased its estimated annual sales by $143 million despite the fact that it operated 23 fewer stores than a year ago. The primary reason for that gain was the liquidation of competitor Rite Aid, which closed all of its stores. Much of Rite Aid’s volume went to CVS and Walgreens but supermarket retailers such as Giant, Safeway, Walmart, The Giant Company and Wegmans also gained business that Rite Aid once controlled. For the year, CVS operated 570 stores in the Mid-Atlantic and accrued estimated sales of $3.91 billion.
Remaining in fourth place among all Mid-Atlantic merchants was Food Lion, which continued to be the best performing brand in the ADUSA portfolio (although not as robustly as in the Southeast). The Salisbury, NC-based grocery chain now operates 256 stores (same as last year) and saw estimated sales increases from $3.49 billion to $3.57 billion.
Albertsons Mid-Atlantic, which includes the Safeway, Acme and Balducci’s banners in this study, had a generally flat year in the Baltimore-Washington area where most of its stores are based. For the seventh year in a row, Albertsons opened no new stores in the region (it closed one store in Rockville, MD). Sales increased slightly to $3.52 billion from $3.50 billion at its 122 supermarkets.
The Giant Company had a solid year and the ADUSA brand that’s based in Carlisle, PA remained sixth-ranked among all grocery retailers in the Mid-Atlantic region. Sales at its 63 Giant and Martin’s stores (same as last year) in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia rose to an estimated $3.16 billion from $3.11 billion during the last 12 months.
The convenience store leader in the $64.4 billion market remained 7-Eleven. Operating both corporately-owned and franchised c-stores, the Dallas, TX-based operator, which is owned by Japanese juggernaut Seven & i Holdings, now operates 1,130 stores in the Mid-Atlantic which produced an estimated $3.03 billion in annual sales.
Moving up to eighth place among Mid-Atlantic retailers was Wegmans, which operated 27 large supermarkets in the region. The Rochester, NY uber-retailer benefited from above-the-norm comp store sales as well as the opening of a new store in Rockville, MD last June. Estimated annual revenue of $2.55 billion made it the highest per store average supermarket operator in the entire region.
After more than two decades of sales and store growth in the region, Harris Teeter followed last year’s pattern of disappointing sales while also closing four stores in the B-W market that were underperforming. The Matthews, NC-based Kroger subsidiary rang up estimated sales of $2.46 billion at its 74 area stores (same store count as last year).
Rounding out the area’s top 10 were the 146 International Markets (specialty and ethnic supermarkets that are at least 20,000 square feet in size are grouped together in this survey) that operate in the Mid-Atlantic. That’s five more stores than last year giving the amalgamation of 146 specialty and ethnic supermarkets (mostly Hispanic and Asian) an estimated $2.34 billion in annual sales.
Other retailers that topped the $1 billion mark in annual sales in the 89-county region included: Costco (one of the best performer), whose 31 stores rang up estimated extrapolated revenue of $2.31 billion; Target, which continued to find the competitive battle difficult, found the sales battle difficult and amassed flat estimated extrapolated sales of $2.29 billion at its 113 stores, one more than last year; Weis Markets, which opened five new supermarkets over the past 12 months, had an excellent year at its 104 stores that produced $2.26 billion in annual revenue; Walgreens, which like rival CVS ran fewer stores but benefited from Rite Aid’s market withdrawal, now operates 289 stores and garnered $1.95 billion in estimated annual sales; regional convenience store power Wawa (another healthy operator this year), whose 216 c-stores (six more than last year) rang up estimated annual sales of $1.66 billion; Amazon Grocery (which includes Whole Foods and its sole Daily Shop in Arlington, VA), was bolstered by strong WFM volume, but hurt by the closure of its Amazon Fresh grocery unit nationally. Regionally, that meant 10 AF units were shuttered. Now with 39 stores in the region, Amazon Grocery rang up estimated annual sales of $1.61 billion; Aldi, one of the best performing retailers in the study with 160 stores (seven more than last year), increased its estimated annual revenue from $1.44 billion to $1.56 billion; Kroger, which continued to operate 37 conventional supermarkets and Marketplace stores in the Richmond and Tidewater markets, garnered estimated annual sales of $1.43 billion, a slight increase over last year’s volume; BJ’s Wholesale Club opened a replacement club unit in Mechanicsburg, PA, and enjoyed a very productive year, operating 30 stores (the same as 2025) that garnered estimated extrapolated annual sales of $1.26 billion; Sam’s Club (a unit of Walmart), operated 26 club units in the Mid-Atlantic region (no change from last year) which amassed an estimated extrapolated annual volume of $1.19 billion, a solid increase over last’s year’s revenue; and rounding out the “billion dollar club” was Trade Joe’s, which continued to produce comp store sales at an impressive rate. For its 36 stores in the region, three more than last year, the “treasure hunt” merchant collected estimated sales of $1.02 billion in the 89-county Mid-Atlantic region.
By class of trade, the leaders were: supermarkets – Giant Food (Landover) with 160 stores, $6.63 billion in sales; clubs – Costco with 31 stores, $2.31 billion in estimated extrapolated sales; mass – Walmart with 157 stores and $6.77 billion in estimated extrapolated sales; drug – CVS with 570 stores and $3.91 billion in estimated sales; and convenience stores – 7-Eleven with 1,130 stores and an estimated $3.03 billion in revenue.
Additionally, the 20 military commissaries in the region rang up annual sales of $895.1 million, a huge increase from last year’s figure of $592.2 million
Viewed as a group, the 48 corporate chains in the market operated 4,954 stores and accrued an estimated $63.37 billion in annual sales, good for 98.4 percent of the Mid-Atlantic region’s $64.4 billion food and drug market.
Among all independent retailers (those operating between two and 17 stores), Mechanicsburg, PA-based Karns Prime & Fancy Foods led all merchants with annual sales of $183 million at its 10 Central PA stores. Ranking second among all indies in the region was Family Owned Markets, the Millersville, PA retail marketing group that supervises seven independent stores in Central PA and northern MD whose collective sales totaled $128.9 million. Baltimore-based B. Green, which operates five supermarkets under the Green Valley banner, was the only other independent in the region to break the $100 million annual sales mark – it rang up annual revenue of $109 million. During the past year, the family-owned merchant closed both of its Food Depot stores in Baltimore City.
As a combined group, the 10 multi-store independent retail organizations in the Mid-Atlantic operated 50 supermarkets which garnered estimated annual sales of $742.6 million. Collectively, those stores controlled 1.15 percent of the region’s food and drug revenue.
As for major store changes among the 58 retailers surveyed in this market study, they were significant. The two major stories over the past year were the liquidation of Rite Aid stores nationally (affecting 112 stores in the Mid-Atlantic) and the shuttering of all Amazon Fresh stores (impacting 10 units in the region). Other significant store closings included 23 by CVS; 11 by Walgreens, eight by Grocery Outlet; and eight by Shoppers Food. Those that opened at least five stores in the market were Aldi (six); Wawa (six); and Weis Markets (five).
Competitive times (and softer sales and earnings) often mean more change at the leadership level, too. During the past 12 months here’s what happened: John Furner replaced long-time Walmart CEO Doug McMillan when he retired. Relatedly, Latriece Watkins took the helm at the company’s Sam’s Club division, replacing Chris Nicolas, who moved to head Walmart’s international business unit. At Albertsons, veteran executive Susan Morris was promoted to chief executive, replacing Vivek Sankaran who retired. Shortly after being named to the top spot, Morris made several executive changes including moving Tom Lofland, who previously oversaw the chain’s Mid-Atlantic division, to the retailer’s Jewel division in Chicago and naming newcomer Sean Thompson (ex-Party City) to run the Malvern, PA-based division. Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO since 2014, stepped down earlier this year (he remains its executive chairman) and was replaced by former Target CFO Michael Fiddelke. After Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen was pushed out of the job in early 2025, board member Ron Sargent was named interim chief executive. After a lengthy search, Kroger named former Walmart senior leader Greg Foran as its new CEO. Jason Hart, the man who helped lead Aldi to great success over the past decade, was promoted to run the company’s global operations from Salzburg, Austria and was replaced by 20-year Aldi U.S. veteran Atty McGrath. Additionally, the merry-go-round that is the job of U.S. president of Lidl, continued to spin as former private equity executive Joel Rampoldt left the German discounter and was recently replaced by Lidl veteran Alan Barry. Another troubled retailer, Save A Lot, also switched chief executives. Fred Boehler, who was also a former board member, retired and ex-Wakefern stalwart Bill Mayo was elevated to CEO. And when PE firm Sycamore Partners acquired Walgreens for $27.3 billion last year, it dispatched chief executive Tim Wentworth and replaced him with Mike Motz, who formerly ran Staples.