Who are Costco’s competitors?
Costco names 6 companies as competitors in its latest annual report, on 2 fronts. 10 companies name Costco back.
Skip to the field, head to head ↓Costco company profile
Costco names 6 competitors. Companies from grocers to mall owners name it too.
Costco's own map is tidy. It draws two fronts: general merchandise, with Walmart, Target, Kroger and Amazon, and warehouse clubs, with Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Other companies draw different maps. Village Super Market lists Costco among grocers. Grocery Outlet counts it among discount retailers of consumable products. Newegg puts it with superstores selling electronics. Simon Property puts it beside Walmart and Target as a threat to mall tenants. Arko says grocery and large warehouse stores "sell fuel adjacent to their stores", and Par Pacific lists Costco among its Hawaii fuel competitors.
Costco doesn't pick all of its rivals. Its neighbors pick some of them, based on whose customers, shelf space or gallons it takes. That makes the size of the company hard to ignore. Costco had $303.2 billion in revenue, grew 10%, and kept a 3% net margin. Walmart earned the same margin but grew 5%. Target shrank 2%, and Kroger was flat at 0%. A company growing faster than the big names beside it will keep turning up on lists it never wrote.
So the useful idea is this: a competitor list is a statement about who is looking. Costco's list shows where it sees itself. The other lists show where others feel it. A strategist should read both, and expect the second to be longer and more varied.
Where Costco says it competes
“significant general merchandise retail competitors in the U.S.”
“We also compete with other warehouse clubs, including Walmart’s Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club in the U.S.”
Who names Costco as a competitor
“Some of the Company's principal competitors include Acme, Aldi, Amazon/Whole Foods, BJs, Costco, Foodtown, Giant, Kings, Lidl, Safeway, Stop & Shop, Target, Trader Joe's, Walmart, Wegmans and Weis.”
10-K for 2026“We see discount retailers of consumable products, which include Costco, WinCo, Target, Trader Joe's, Aldi and Lidl, as competitors given their broad product offerings at low prices relative to conventional grocery stores.”
10-K for 2026“In particular, dollar stores (such as Family Dollar and Dollar General) and pharmacies (such as CVS and Walgreens) now sell snacks, beer and wine and other products that have traditionally been sold by convenience stores, while grocery and large warehouse stores (such as Costco and Wal-Mart) sell fuel adjacent to th…”
10-K for 2025“Our principal market is in the United States, where we compete with retail stores and resellers, including superstores such as Best Buy, Costco and Walmart, hardware and software vendors that sell directly to end users, online retailers such as Amazon, and other marketers and resellers of IT/CE products.”
20-F for 2025“Our Hawaii competitors include the Shell, Texaco, Costco, Safeway, and Sam’s Club national brands, regional brand Aloha, and other local retailers.”
10-K for 2025“Our properties compete with other forms of retailing such as pure online retail websites as well as other types of retail properties such as single user freestanding discounters (Costco, Walmart and Target).”
10-K for 2025“We also face competition from mass-market retail competitors, such as Walmart and Costco, who devote shelf space to merchandise and products targeted to our consumers, as well as online mass-market retailers such as Amazon, who devote online categories to merchandise and products targeted to our consumers.”
10-K for 2025“Our markets are highly competitive and we compete locally, domestically and internationally with office supply resellers, including Staples, Internet-based companies such as Amazon, mass merchandisers such as Walmart and Target, wholesale clubs such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJs, computer and electronics superstores…”
10-K for 2024“Sam's Club competes with other membership-only warehouse clubs, the largest of which is Costco, as well as with discount retailers, retail and wholesale grocers, general merchandise wholesalers and distributors, gasoline stations as well as omni-channel and eCommerce retailers and catalog businesses.”
10-K for 2024“Currently, we compete against a diverse group of retailers, including national mass merchants such as Wal-Mart, Target, Sam’s Club, and Costco, specialized national retailers such as Best Buy, Ashley Furniture and Mattress Firm, home improvement stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot, and locally-owned regional or ind…”
10-K for 2024Who joined, who left
Against its annual report for fiscal 2023, Costco’s latest list adds no one.
| Company | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 | FY2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| BJ’s Wholesale Club | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Kroger | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Sam’s Club | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Target | ● | ● | ● | ● |
| Walmart | ● | ● | ● | ● |
● named in that year’s annual report, for the fiscal years shown.
The field, from the filings
| Company | Fiscal year | Revenue | Growth | Net margin | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costco | FY to Aug 2026 | $303.2B | +10% | 3% | 355,000 |
| Amazon | 2025 | $716.9B | +12% | 11% | 1,576,000 |
| Walmart | FY to Jan 2026 | $713.2B | +5% | 3% | – |
| Kroger | FY to Jan 2026 | $147.6B | 0% | 1% | 403,000 |
| Target | FY to Jan 2026 | $104.8B | −2% | 4% | 415,000 |
| BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings | FY to Jan 2026 | $21.5B | +5% | 3% | 35,000 |
| Par Pacific Holdings | 2025 | $7.5B | −6% | 5% | 1,758 |
| ODP | 2024 | $7.0B | −11% | 0% | 19,000 |
| Simon Property | 2025 | $6.4B | +7% | 84% | 3,600 |
| Grocery Outlet Holding | FY to Jan 2026 | $4.7B | +7% | −5% | 2,207 |
| Village Super Market | FY to Jul 2026 | $2.4B | +4% | 2% | 7,100 |
Each company’s latest fiscal year as reported to the SEC, in US dollars; fiscal years end in different months. Rivals that report outside the US or in other currencies are not shown.
What the rivals have done lately
“In December 2024, the Walmart U.S. segment completed the acquisition of VIZIO Holding Corp. for net cash consideration of $1.9 billion.” filing
“Billings Acquisition, which closed on June 1, 2023.” filing
“For purposes of this section, “legacy portfolio” and “legacy refining operations” refer to our Hawaii, Wyoming, and Washington refineries, and exclude our Montana refinery acquired in June 2023.” filing
Decisions that shaped the field
Asked about Costco’s competitors
Who are Costco's competitors?
In its annual report for fiscal 2026, Costco names 6 competitors across 2 fronts: general merchandise retail competitors and warehouse club competitors. 10-K for fiscal 2026
Which companies name Costco as a competitor?
10 companies in our coverage name it in their own annual reports: Village Super Market, Grocery Outlet Holding, Arko, Newegg Commerce, Par Pacific Holdings, Simon Property, Leslie's, ODP, Walmart and Conns.
How does Costco compare with its rivals?
Costco reported $303.2B in revenue in its latest fiscal year, +10% on a year, with a 3% net margin. Amazon: $716.9B, 11% net margin; Walmart: $713.2B, 3% net margin.
What are the alternatives to Costco?
The companies Costco itself names as competitors are listed above, front by front, each in its own report’s words. Which matters for a given buyer depends on the job, not the list.
What would it actually cost a challenger to take your customer?
Sources: Costco’s annual report for fiscal 2026 and earlier years (2023, 2024, 2025); the annual reports of the companies that name it; each company’s financial data as reported to the SEC; Stratrix Decision Records. Analysis and data, not advice.
Keep going
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
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