Walmart Wins the Weekly Run. Target Wins the Weekend.

More than half of Target's card customers also bought something at Walmart in July 2025. Walmart was the most common other stop for Target shoppers, ahead of McDonald's.

Target does draw a somewhat wealthier crowd, but counted by head the difference is small. The larger differences are in what people do at each store. Walmart customers come back to the same store more often, spend more there, arrive earlier in the day and stay longer. Target gets more of its visits on Saturdays and a bigger jump in December.

The two chains also sit in different places. Two-thirds of Target stores are in the 50 largest metro areas. More than half of Walmart stores are in smaller cities and towns, and 432 are in fully rural counties, where Target has two.

Who shops there

In July 2025, 55% of Target's card customers also bought at Walmart that month, more than at any other brand. McDonald's was next, at 54%. For Walmart's customers, Target came fourth at 23%, behind McDonald's, Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

The gap is mostly size. The shared group is about 1.8 million to 2.1 million people either way, but Walmart had 8.9 million customers in the panel and Target 3.2 million. The other names on each list differ. Walmart's list has dollar stores, gas stations and fast food. Target's has Starbucks and Chick-fil-A near the top.

Counted by customers, Target's crowd is only a little richer. 19.0% of its card customers came from households earning more than $150,000, against 18.4% at the average place in the panel and 14.1% at Walmart. Costco (25.2%), BJ's (20.5%) and Kohl's (20.4%) all drew a richer crowd. At the other end, 35.3% of Target's customers came from households earning under $45,000. That is more than at the average place (32.9%) and close to Walmart (37.3%).

Counted by dollars, the gap is wider, because richer customers spend more. In ConsumerEdge's card panel, households earning more than $150,000 supplied 34.8% of Target's spending and 20.8% of Walmart's. Walmart's share is lower than at 88% of the 284 largest card-spend brands. Nordstrom (55%) and Lululemon (50%) sit at the rich end, and Family Dollar at the low-income end.

Age splits the chains the same way. 18-to-24-year-olds bring 9.1% of Target's spending, more than at 86% of big brands, and 5.3% of Walmart's. People 65 and older bring 22.8% of Walmart's spending and 12.3% of Target's. Among cardholders flagged with a party, Republicans bring 53% of Walmart's spending and 43% of Target's.

Affluent households matter more to Target's sales, but more of them shop at Walmart. In the panel, 1.81 million shoppers from households earning over $150,000 spent at Walmart, against 1.65 million at Target.

The neighbourhoods visitors come from show the same order. In the census block groups Target's visitors come from, 11.0% of residents are in the top three of 13 modelled income bands, about the same as the U.S. as a whole (10.8%). That puts Target between Kroger (8.1%) and Costco (14.9%). For Walmart the figure is 4.2%, closer to Dollar General (1.8%). The share of residents flagged Republican follows the same order. Homeownership hardly differs across the chains.

A clustering model grouped 1,593 brands only by who pays. Asked for two groups, it put Walmart and Target together. Asked for five, it split them. Walmart lands with Dollar General, Home Depot and Publix, brands leaning on middle-income households. Target lands with Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin' and TJ Maxx, brands leaning on families with kids.

Phones point the same way. 53.9% of the devices seen at Target in the last 12 months were iPhones, the third-highest share of 28 chains, after Apple stores (63.6%) and Chick-fil-A (54.0%). At Walmart the share was 43.2%, 11th of 28. The dollar chains were lowest, at about 27% to 30%. Every retailer sits at or below the national figure of 54.8%, which also counts offices, schools and airports.

The gap has held in every month since January 2023. The panel's overall iPhone mix moves from month to month, but Target tracks the national line while Walmart runs about 10 to 12 points below it. Target's iPhone share is higher than Walmart's in all 45 states with at least five stores of each.

What they spend

Walmart gets far more of each shopper's money. In the 12 months to Aug. 9, 2026, a Walmart shopper in ConsumerEdge's panel spent $1,696 there, across 26.6 transactions averaging $63.85. A Target shopper spent $573, across 11.4 transactions averaging $50.35.

The gap holds in all 28 demographic groups in the data. Target's spending per shopper is at most 48% of Walmart's. That high point is among 18-to-24-year-olds, who spent $600 a year at Target and $1,253 at Walmart.

Store-level card data show the same gap at every income level. Monthly spending per customer rises with income at every chain. At Walmart it runs from about $93 for customers from households earning under $25,000 to $205 for those earning over $150,000, in line with Kroger and Meijer. At Target it runs from $57 to $132, closer to Kohl's. Costco is highest, at up to $338 a month, and the dollar stores are lowest. Dollar General's top band ($164) is out of line with its other bands and is probably a data quirk.

Walmart shoppers also go back more often. In the latest year the average Walmart customer made 2.43 card transactions a month at the same store, fourth of ten chains, behind Kroger (2.79), Meijer (2.75) and Costco (2.46). Target's 1.82 was eighth, above only Dollar Tree and Kohl's. Walmart customers spent about $60 a trip, and Target customers about $50. Trips per customer rose at every chain after 2020, and more at Walmart than at Target.

Target books far more of its store-linked card spending remotely. About 12% of it is card-not-present: online, app or phone orders the card data tie to a store, such as pickup and same-day delivery. That is more than double the next chain, Kohl's, at 5.0%. Walmart is at 3.8%, alongside Costco and Meijer. The warehouse clubs, Kroger and the dollar stores barely register. These orders are not all of each chain's online sales, so the levels are rough.

When they go

Walmart's day starts earlier. 11.6% of its visits come before 9 a.m., against 8.8% at Target, and its curve rises earliest of the big-box chains. Target's visits peak later, around 2 p.m., and 30% come after 5 p.m., against 28% at Walmart. Opening hours explain part of this.

Walmart visits last longer. 30% of them run 21 minutes or more, the third-highest share of 28 chains, behind Costco (40%) and Sam's Club (34%). Target's 22% ranks ninth, close to Meijer and HomeGoods. The median visit is 14.6 minutes at Walmart and 11.5 at Target. At pharmacies and dollar stores, about 6% of visits last that long.

Target's week leans on Saturday. The day brings 20.1% of its weekly visits, eighth-highest of 28 chains. That puts it near Apple, Five Below, HomeGoods and Kohl's, which get 21% to 23%. Walmart's Saturday share is 17.8%, near the middle, and its weekdays are slightly busier. Pharmacies and McDonald's have the flattest weeks.

The year has the same shape. From 2019 through 2024, Target's December card spending per store averaged 45% above its October–November level. Walmart's averaged 24% above. Only Kohl's (67%) and Dollar Tree (48%) jumped more. The warehouse clubs and Kroger rose 6% to 10%. The December jump has shrunk at most chains since 2019. At Target it fell from 57% to 37%.

Where the stores are

The chains have built different maps. Target has 1,322 stores (66%) in the 50 largest metro areas and 2 outside any metro or micro area. Walmart has 1,768 (39%) in large metros, 2,377 (52%) in smaller metro and micro areas and 432 (9%) in fully rural counties.

Counted by where visitors live, Walmart draws about twice as many visitors as Target in large metros, five times as many in smaller metro and micro areas, and 17 times as many in rural areas.

Each Walmart is also busier. A typical Walmart draws about 34,600 visits a week, the most of 28 chains, ahead of Costco (31,100) and H-E-B (29,600). A Target draws 19,800, sixth, behind Sam's Club and ahead of Meijer and Kroger. The dollar chains draw fewer than 2,000 a week per store; they run many small stores.

The gap holds state by state. In the 45 states with at least five Targets, and in Washington, D.C., the average Walmart draws more weekly visits than the average Target. Target comes closest in Louisiana, at 94% of a Walmart's visits, and is furthest behind in D.C., at 23%.

Momentum

Target's share of card spending has shrunk. Comparing the first and latest 12-month periods in ConsumerEdge's panel, Target went from 1.87% to 1.56% of spending across tracked brands, a drop of 17%. Only Kohl's fell further, by 31%. Walmart held at about 6.2%, up 1%. Amazon Marketplace rose from 3.6% to 4.8%, up 33%, and Dollar Tree (up 36%), Sam's Club (19%) and Costco (18%) also gained.

Target's same-brand card spending grew more slowly than the median of eight peers in all 16 quarters from 2022 Q3 to 2026 Q2. Its weakest stretch ran from 2023 Q2 to 2024 Q1, when spending fell about 5% a year. In 2026 Q2 Target grew 0.8%, against 1.9% for Walmart and 2.9% for the peer median. The weak stretches overlap with boycotts of the chain; the data show the timing, not the cause.

Many Americans shop at both chains. Walmart gets more of their routine spending, more trips and longer visits. Target gets more of its visits on Saturdays and in December, and its share of card spending has fallen since 2021.