Those in the retail industry probably know the significance of 1962. For those that don't, that's when Walmart, Kmart, and Target first opened their collective doors. Since then, those three chains have changed the landscape of retail forever.
Dayton-Hudson (which was found in 1902) opened the first Target store in Roseville, Minnesota. S.S. Kresge (founded in 1899) opened the first Kmart discount department store in Garden City, Michigan. Sam Walton (owner of several Ben Franklin Stores) opened the first Wal-Mart Store in Rodgers, Arkansas. The rest, as they say, is history. Comparison chart.
I've mentioned the ability to map store locations in previous posts, but FlowingData has gone a step further and mapped store openings over time for both Target and Walmart. These animated maps illustrate the spread of Target and Walmart across the US as if they were two strains of a highly contagious virus.
Target Store Openings
Walmart Store Openings
I wonder who has the momentum now. Kohl's?
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Comments (1)
Interesting visualization.
Would have been even more interesting to see the Walmart *global* data of store locations, since their strategy, at least for some countries like Canada, is to purchase existing retailer sites, then later start building new stores.
Posted by Karen Lopez | February 24, 2009 3:56 PM
Posted on February 24, 2009 15:56