Ranked: The Fastest Growing and Declining Retail Brands, from 2019-2020

Walmart Owns Most of the Supermarkets in Mexico

The U.S. and Mexico have influenced each other in many ways over the course of their history, through both the exchange of culture and the cross-border trade of goods and services. One lesser-known area of overlap between the two nations? Supermarket ownership.

This graphic from Latinometrics ranks supermarket popularity in Mexico by tallying the number of locations per chain, and showing who owns those brands.

Mexico’s Relationship with Walmart

When it comes to supermarkets in Mexico, no single company comes close to matching the reach of Walmart. Also the world’s largest company by revenue, Walmart has over 2,700 stores in the country, including chains it owns such as Sam’s Club and Bodega Aurrera. The latter is both the largest supermarket within the Walmart category, and also the most popular in Mexico.

Bodega Aurrera was first established in the 1970s, two decades before Walmart entered Mexico’s market directly in 1991. The discount store now has some 2,000 locations across the country.

In fact, it’s almost safe to say that Mexico is Walmart’s second home. After the U.S., which has just over 5,000 stores, the greatest number of Walmart stores reside in Mexico. But on a per capita basis, there are more Walmart-owned stores in Mexico. Specifically, there is about one Walmart-owned store per 47,000 Mexicans, compared to 62,000 for Americans.

Source: Walmart.com, Statista (International figures, January 2022), *Japan/UK figures from January 2021

The company’s presence in Mexico is so strong that Walmart’s Mexico division trades separately on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) under the name Walmex. In March of 2022, Walmex had a market cap above 1.3 trillion pesos, or $64 billion.

Supermarkets in Mexico by Revenue Market Share

Overall, with the thousands of stores that they operate, Walmart’s revenue in Mexico gives it a 68% market share within the country’s supermarket industry.

Other American grocery retailers to make the list include H-E-B, a San Antonio-based chain with stores in northeast Mexico, and Costco, which opened its first Mexican location in 1992 as Price Club (before the companies merged).

Sorianna, the next biggest supermarket operator, holds about 15% of the industry’s market share. It is joined by Chedraui, Casa Ley, La Comer, and Alsuper as Mexico’s biggest domestic grocery chains, with some of them also extending their reach into the Southwest United States.

Ranked: The Reputation of 100 Major Brands in the U.S.

Whether you’re a country or a company, brand reputation is crucial. For corporations trying to stand out amongst an array of competitors, name recognition can be make or break.

The Axios Harris Poll polled a nationally representative sample of nearly 43,000 Americans to find out which 100 companies emerge as top of mind—for better or for worse.

How is Brand Reputation Measured?

The polling process started by asking respondents which two companies they felt excelled or faltered in the U.S.—in other words, which companies were the most “visible” in their eyes.

The top 100 brands that emerged from this framework were then judged by poll respondents across seven dimensions, over three key pillars:

• Character
  Includes a company’s culture, ethics, and citizenship (whether a consumer shares a company’s values or the company supports good causes)
• Trajectory
  Includes a company’s growth prospects, vision for the future, and product and service offerings (whether they are innovative, and of high quality)
• Trust
  Does a consumer trust the brand in the first place?

Once these dimensions are taken into account, the final scores portray how these “visible brands” rank in terms of their reputation among a representative sample of Americans:

• Score range: 80.0 and above
  Reputation: Excellent
• Score range: 75.0-79.9
  Reputation: Very Good
• Score range: 70.0-74.9
  Reputation: Good
• Score range: 65.0-69.9
  Reputation: Fair
• Score range: 64.9 and below
  Reputation: Poor

Companies with a Very Poor reputation (a score below 50) didn’t make it into the list. Here’s how the 100 most visible companies stack up in terms of brand reputation:

While the ranking itself highlights well-respected and poorly-viewed brands overall, another perspective is to look at which brands shot up in the list, and which ones plummeted.

Fastest Risers in Brand Reputation

Unwavering and bold commitments to the environment has helped Patagonia to top the charts as the #1 brand, rising 31 ranks since 2020. From funneling 1% of sales into environmental donations to ensuring ethical supply chains, Patagonia’s culture, ethics, and citizenship all align with its business model in consumers’ eyes.

With over 33 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered daily around the world, Pfizer’s contribution to the ongoing immunization progress is undeniable. As a result, its overall ranking has swelled by 54 places since 2020.

Dollar General might seem like a surprising addition to this table, but in terms of sheer growth, discount stores are thriving. Across America, dollar stores are opening at a rate of three per day, faster than any Starbucks or McDonalds.

There’s a crucial reason for this: in many rural areas, millions rely on dollar stores for food and other essentials, as the nearest grocery store can be nearly an hour’s drive away.

Biggest Decliners in Brand Reputation

Despite steady revenue growth, Google is among a handful of Big Tech companies whose reputations are backsliding, dropping 36 places in the past year. The outsize power and influence these companies hold is increasingly coming under regulatory scrutiny.

Although Netflix pioneered the world of streaming, it is now facing stiff competition from emerging subscription services. Amazon’s latest acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM Studios) will especially bolster the content catalog available on Prime Video.

Building a Brand Reputation Doesn’t Come Easy

Near the bottom of the 100 companies leaderboard, the struggles of mainstream media and modern information dissemination are strongly reflected. Despite their diverse audiences and established histories, brand reputations of both Facebook and Fox News have eroded in recent years.

This example highlights how the nature of a brand’s reputation can evolve over time. Building a strong and reputable brand may be subjective, but its effects on consumer loyalty are powerful.