Who, What, Why And How

The Top 100 Retailers are ranked by 52/53-week annual retail sales. In most instances, sales are for retail activity in the United States only; footnotes are provided when this is not the case. To arrive at U.S. retail sales figures, a variety of estimation techniques are applied based on publicly disclosed information. For this reason, the figures presented do not always match the companies’ official public filing reports.

Company revenues from non-retailing operating segments are removed unless otherwise noted; system-wide sales are provided when the operation is a franchise.

The two most significant changes to the 2010 Top 100 are the elimination (in most instances) of gasoline/fueling station and other non-retail sales and the removal of all non-domestic sales. Retailers near the top of last year’s ranking that have fallen a few notches as a result of the new methodology include Costco, SUPERVALU and 7-Eleven, and several companies that derive a significant portion of overall revenues from fuel sales fell off altogether.

What constitutes a segment Power Player? Any retailer with 2009 sales equal to or greater than 10 percent of the sales of the category leader.

About Kantar Retail
Kantar Retail (www.kantarretail.com) is a global retail insights and consulting business that works with clients to transform the behavior of shoppers and retailers. Kantar Retail serves the world’s leading retailers and manufacturers and has offices in 15 markets around the globe. By combining the resources of Cannondale, Glendinning, MVI and Retail Forward, the company solves client issues from tactical to strategic. Kantar Retail is headquartered in London and is part of the Kantar Group of WPP.