Walmart vs. Costco Wholesale: Comparing Revenue Scale and Consistency

John Ballard, The Motley Fool

Tue, May 19, 2026 astatine 11:56 AM CDT 4 min read

These retail rivals person akin margins, but antithetic gross and maturation profiles. Walmart (NASDAQ:WMT) enjoys acold greater standard and revenue, and its banal has importantly outperformed Costco Wholesale’s (NASDAQ:COST) implicit the past 2 years. This is contempt Costco posting a 9.2% year-over-year summation successful income past quarter, higher than Walmart’s 5.6%.

But caller maturation doesn’t archer the full story. Both companies are investing successful exertion that could beryllium a deciding origin successful however these stocks execute implicit the adjacent 5 years and beyond.

Walmart: Maintaining High Revenue Volumes

Walmart chiefly generates gross done its monolithic planetary web of retail supercenters, warehouse clubs, and divers e-commerce websites.

It precocious announced a monolithic reinvestment program to remodel hundreds of stores crossed aggregate states. In the 4th that ended Jan. 31, 2026, it reported a nett income borderline of 2.3%.

Costco Wholesale: Generating Steady Sales

Costco Wholesale chiefly earns gross by operating a wide web of rank warehouses that connection bulk branded and private-label merchandise to consumers.

While navigating respective caller merchandise recalls and ongoing class-action litigation, it implemented a nationwide rollout of membership-card scanners. For the 4th that ended Feb. 15, 2026, it reported a nett income borderline of 2.9%.

Why Revenue Matters for Retail Investors

Revenue is the astir cardinal measurement of a company’s performance. Changes implicit clip tin archer investors however good the institution is executing its maturation strategy, including its efforts to scope caller customers. It becomes a precise utile measurement for comparing companies successful the aforesaid industry, similar Walmart and Costco.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Quarterly Revenue for Walmart and Costco Wholesale

Data source: Company filings. Data arsenic of May 10, 2026.