Superstores and wholesale clubs – including Target, Walmart, Costco, BJ’s Wholesale and Sam’s Club – posted a strong start to 2025 with higher visits in January compared with January 2024, according to a placer.ai analysis of visitation trends.
During the past year, wholesale clubs outperformed superstores, the report found. Costco’s visits increased the most from 2023 at 7.2%, followed by BJ’s at 5% and Sam’s Club at 4.8%. Target and Walmart traffic, meanwhile, remained relatively flat from the previous year, with Target posting no increase in visits between 2023 and 2024, while Walmart visits were up 1.1%.
The report noted both Target and Walmart experienced visit increases of 3.6% and 3%, respectively in January 2025. Placer.ai said this is a promising sign for growth in 2025.
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The analysis suggests that while Target and Walmart offer similar goods to clients – including groceries, apparel, toys and electronics – they each service slightly different audiences. Target serves both suburban and strongly urbanized segments with higher household incomes and larger households while Walmart attracts more rural and semi-rural shoppers and those who visit the chain at least twice per month, placer.ai said.
Visitation behavior also differs slightly, with Walmart pulling in a larger weekday visit share with visitors lingering in its stores longer than Target shoppers. One-fifth of Walmart shoppers’ visits last longer than 45 minutes, compared with 17% of Target shoppers, according to the analysis.
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Kristen Smithberg
Kristen Smithberg is a Colorado-based freelance writer who covers commercial real estate, insurance, benefits and retirement topics for BenefitsPRO and other industry publications.
