Winners and losers in five years of Top 75. |

In big picture terms, in the last five years business has been booming at the retailers and wholesalers on SN’s Top 75. Total combined sales of all 75 companies on the list topped $1.18 trillion in 2014, up from $891.1 billion in 2010.

Some retailers have fared particularly well.

As in most aspects of the list, Walmart is in a league all by itself. The company’s outsize sales — hundreds of billions more than No. 2 Kroger Co. — also grew the most by volume of any other retailer since 2010. Sales climbed $112 billion, as the retail behemoth continued to gain market share.

The next biggest sales gainers were Kroger and perennial Top 75 No. 3 Costco Wholesale Corp., increasing volume by $22.9 billion and $19.1 billion, respectively, from 2010 to 2014. Kroger has managed to accomplish these impressive sales gains while shedding 107 stores, although that only represents a 3% drop in the number of stores coupled with a 23% rise in sales.

While Albertsons and Bi-Lo Holdings also experienced big gains ($18.8 billion and $8 billion, respectively), this can mainly be attributed to the former’s acquisition of Albertsons stores from Supervalu and the latter’s purchase of Winn-Dixie.

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