Walmart’s dominance in the retailing world has been fading for quite some time now. When the mega-company was incorporated in 1969 and constructed in small cities throughout the Midwest, it was one of the few mainstreamed retail stores where people could efficiently shop.
However, it later started to receive competition after the mainstreaming of other retail stores such as Costco, Walgreen’s, and of course, its biggest rival, Target.
Target (after undergoing some upgrades, of course) has been able to attract more customers and rack up an exponential amount of revenue per year. According to an informal survey among students and teachers at Clayton High School, many prefer going to Target because of its “nice ambiance” and “more upscale merchandise”.
Many survey respondents said that they scorned Walmart due to its exploitation of customers and mistreatment of employees. Locals clearly favor Target over Walmart, but is Target really that much better than Walmart?
Based on the survey, Target edges out Walmart in numerous fields such as ambiance, cleanliness, high quality goods, and even customer service.

Many respondents complained that due to Walmart’s gargantuan size, employees are hard to find in times of need. Some said they were troubled by Walmart’s questionable environment.

The one thing many of the respondents did agree on was that Walmart was significantly cheaper than Target.  Though this is a commonly held belief, a recent test done by a Robert Buchanan, a St. Louis University professor (who compared prices of 48 common items for five retail stores including Walmart and Target) showed that Target is actually 1.1 percent cheaper than Walmart. The common items included things like milk, eggs, and certain clothes, among other items.
Of course, Target has its fair share of negatives as well.  There are 8,100 Walmarts in 15 countries while there are just 1,684 Targets in the world and they’re all in the U.S.
Though it has made lots of revenue in the past few years, Target is infamous for being an inconsistent market (as their stocks were down 60 percent last year, and suddenly surged again this year).
Target will never beat Walmart in terms of profits (Walmart is a much larger chain), but it definitely dominates Walmart in many other areas. Plus, it has been able to create more of a friendly, comfortable environment while Walmart is constantly hammered for having a more chaotic ambiance.
Many people’s perceptions about Target are positive as well, in comparison to Walmart. If Walmart doesn’t work to lose its stigma, it will continue to be on everyone’s hate list (and its profits will take a dip too).