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Even if you listened carefully, you probably wouldn't have heard some retail giants quietly slipping past their rivals last year.
But some noteworthy changes emerged when the National Retail Federation last week published its annual ranking of the 100 biggest retail companies based on 2002 revenues:
- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remained far and away the nation's biggest retailer with annual revenues of $246.5-billion. In fact, Wal-Mart's $27-billion increase in 2002 revenues over 2001 exceeded the annual sales of Lowe's, the home improvement chain that moved up to 12th place. Wal-Mart is more than four times as big as Home Depot, which came in second on the list at $58.2-billion.
- With revenues of $42.7-billion, Target Corp., owner of the discount store chain, surged past Sears Roebuck & Co. to become the fourth largest. A bit more than a decade ago Sears was the nation's largest retail company.
- Costco Wholesale Corp., the membership warehouse club, leaped two notches to sixth place, moving ahead of grocers Albertson's Inc. and Safeway Inc. by generating revenues of $37.9-billion.
- Kmart Corp., which recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with about a third fewer stores than before, plunged to tenth, one notch below J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and its Eckerd Corp., the Largo drugstore chain.
- Publix, the supermarket chain based in Lakeland, advanced a rung to 16th place with revenues of $15.9-billion.