5 companies · median 20 of 36 checks · prices as of 2026-09-08
General retail stocks.
Sorted by how many checks each one passes. Sort by any column to see who is cheapest, who is growing, or who has the strongest balance sheet - and how that compares with what is normal for the industry.
Ranked by checks passed
5 of 201 covered companies→There is real spread here - Target (TGT) leads on 21 of 36 checks, Costco (COST) trails on 13, with a median of 20.
→WMT, COST, TGT are 96% of the $1.37T we cover here, so a sector average says more about them than about the rest.
 TargetTGTA general merchandise retailer with a large store network and own-brand goods.ReportFact sheet | -1.1% | +81.7% | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 21/36 |
 Dollar GeneralDGRuns thousands of small discount stores in rural and small-town America.ReportFact sheet | -4.0% | +19.4% | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 20/36 |
 Dollar TreeDLTRRuns the Dollar Tree discount chain after selling Family Dollar.ReportFact sheet | -5.6% | +22.7% | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 20/36 |
 WalmartWMTAmerica's largest retailer by sales, from supercentres to a growing online and advertising business.ReportFact sheet | -1.0% | +6.4% | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 15/36 |
 CostcoCOSTSells bulk goods at thin margins to members who pay an annual fee.ReportFact sheet | -0.6% | -5.0% | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 13/36 |
The filings behind this table close between 2026-05-10 and 2026-08-01, because these companies do not share a fiscal calendar; prices are the close of 2026-09-08. Each name links to its full report; every score is a count of pass-or-fail checks read from that company's own filings.
Where the sector falls short
median score per axis→Growth is where the general retailers we cover come up short most often, at a median of 2 of 6, while Quality runs at 4.
| Value | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Growth | ●●○○○○ | 2 of 6 |
| Quality | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Health | ●●●●○○ | 4 of 6 |
| Shareholder returns | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Trend analysis | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
Who grows, and who keeps it
every company in the industry→DLTR does both: growing faster than this industry's middle and keeping more of each sale than it does. The industry's middle is 5% growth on a 5% margin. WMT does neither.
A year of price
not a fact about the business→4 of 5 are up over twelve months and the median move is +19.4% - Target (TGT) at +81.7% against Costco (COST) at -5.0%. Price is not a fact about a business, and the Trend chapter of each report says what it is measured on.
Head to head
3 pairsThe table above gives the order. These put two of them in one column each, so you can see where the difference actually is.