Retail

The 20 Businesses Americans Visit The Most

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: December 18, 2018 5:01 pm

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 1:32 pm

More Americans put a Walmart in their GPS than any other destination. With sales of over $200 billion in the US, over 1 million workers, and almost 4,600 stores. Walmart dwarfs all other retailers.

According to Drivemode, which makes self-driving apps, of the businesses that people put into their GPS, 16.8% enter in Walmart. The analysis was based on 876,000 Android-based driving apps.

McDonald’s ranked second to Walmart with a 5.7% share. McDonald’s has many more stores that Walmart, with an American store count of 14,000. Next, discount membership retailer Costco with a 5.2 % share. Costco has only 527 locations in the U.S. It is one of the few retailers that makes shoppers buy a membership, which costs $60 a year.

The Home Depot ranks in fourth place. America’s largest home improvement retailers have a 5.1% share of retail addresses put into GPS’s. Target, Walmart’s most direct competitor, ranks fifth at 4.4%. Coffee store giant Starbucks ranks sixth with a 3.6% share. Starbucks is in direct competition with McDonald’s, particularly for the breakfast segment of fast-food consumers.

Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics store, ranks seventh at 2.84%. It not only has to compete with the consumer electrics rivals like Walmart and Costco, Amazon has a substantial consumer electronics business, and its own products like Fire TV and Alexa powered devices that are not available in stores.

Lowe’s, The Home Depot’s primary competitor ranks eighth with a 2.83% share. Pharmacy retailer Walgreen ranks ninth with a 2.4% share. And, the US Post Office ranks 10th at 2.38%.

Drivemode also broke out retailers by type. Across the country, the most popular destination types were grocery stores (30.13%), fast food restaurants (21.29%), and consumer shopping (17.40%).

Commenting on the results, Yo Koga, Drivemode CEO, said, “If they’re not driving to work, this new study shows that Americans get behind the wheel to spend money somewhere, mostly on food. They’re especially drawn to large businesses like Walmart and McDonald’s that advertise extensively and are available, accessible, and convenient in most American communities.” He added that purchasing habits are another major factor.

Finally, the concentration of destinations in the study is significant. Nearly half of those surveyed went to one or more of nine destinations — Walmart, McDonald’s, Costco, The Home Depot, Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Walgreens.