Just How Big is Walmart?

Lisa Wade, PhD on April 14, 2012

Mother Jones magazine offers some comparisons. Highlights:

Its net sales is greater than the GDP of Norway.
Its entertainment sales is triple that of Hollywood.
It emits more CO2 than the 50 lowest-emitting countries together.
It employs a workforce the size of the population of the 50 smallest countries in the world.
Its square-footage exceeds that of the island of Manhattan.

The data:

Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Comments 13

fss — April 14, 2012

For some reason I'd rather have seen the value of the "total electricity consumption of Vermont (minus Vermont Walmarts)"

Elena — April 14, 2012

The article would look a lot better if you replaced those "it's" in the initial bullet points with "its".

Legolewdite — April 14, 2012

I would have gotten just as much out of seeing a picture of Wal-mart next to a picture of a quarter...

Umlud — April 14, 2012

It would be interesting to see the breakdown of how Walmart is in other countries, as well as the companies that Walmart owns (outright or has a controlling share).

David Zeglen — April 14, 2012

Hello,

How meaningful is the comparison of a TNC's annual sales with a country's GDP, outside of a polemic? It's a superficial discourse, as the statistics aren't measuring the same thing quantitatively. GDP is a measure of value-added, not sales. If you calculated total sales of a country, it would easily be bigger than the GDP figure. If you calculated value added for a company like you calculate GDP for a country, a company's figure would shrink considerably. Properly measured, Norway has a bigger economy than Wal-Mart. Improperly comparing the size of TNCs with countries gives a misleading impression of the role of states in the global economy.

Blix — April 15, 2012

Walmart aka World Appropriation League-mart? Correct me if I'm wrong but McDonald's, Walmart, and Disney could do some serious damage in the wrong hands. Key is the wrong hands. Must just be the small business lover inside of me crying.

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