Walmart Retail Stores, Property Ownership, and Distribution Overview

Grocery shopping. Pexels Images.

This article presents Walmart’s retail stores by segment and the type of ownership of the company’s stores, whether they are owned or leased by Walmart.

In the U.S., Walmart operates through two primary divisions: Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club U.S. Its international presence is managed under the Walmart International segment.

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For other key statistics of Walmart, you may find more resources in these pages:

Revenue

• Revenue by category: net sales and membership income,
• Membership and other income by segment: U.S., International, and Sam’s Club,
• Merchandise sales by segment: U.S., International, and Sam’s Club,
• Revenue by region: U.S. and International

Sales and Profit of a Specific Segment

• Walmart U.S. sales and profit margin: grocery, merchandise, and healthcare
• Sam’s Club sales and profit margin: grocery, fuel, merchandise, etc.
• Walmart International sales and profit margin

Other Revenue Streams

• Membership revenue: trend, percentage, and growth,
• eCommerce revenue breakdown: U.S., International, and Sam’s Club,
• Gasoline sales revenue and fuel profit margin

Profit Margin

• Profit margin by segment: U.S., International, and Sam’s Club,

Other Statistics

• Capital expenditures breakdown analysis,
• Total stores worldwide and locations breakdown by region,
• Worldwide stores and locations breakdown by segment

Comparison with Costco

• Walmart vs Costco: profit margin,
• Walmart vs Costco: U.S. and International profit,
• Walmart vs Costco: total stores and average store size,

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Definitions

To help readers understand the content better, the following terms and glossaries have been provided.

Walmart U.S.: Walmart U.S. stands as the company’s largest segment, operating 4,605 stores across the United States, spanning all 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.

As a leading mass merchandiser of consumer products, Walmart U.S. serves customers under the “Walmart” and “Walmart Neighborhood Market” brands, as well as through its digital platform, walmart.com.

With a focus on convenience and integration, Walmart U.S. delivers a seamless omni-channel shopping experience by blending its physical retail locations with eCommerce services.

Nearly all stores offer same-day pickup and delivery options, including features like express delivery within 90 minutes, in-home delivery, and digital pharmacy services.

The Walmart+ membership program enhances this omni-channel approach, offering benefits such as unlimited free shipping with no minimum purchase, unlimited delivery from stores, fuel discounts, mobile Scan & Go capabilities, and exclusive perks for members.

Strategically, Walmart U.S. operates within three core merchandise categories: Grocery, General merchandise, and Health and wellness.

Walmart International: Walmart International ranks as the company’s second largest segment, operating 5,566 stores across 18 countries outside of the United States.

The segment functions through wholly-owned subsidiaries in Canada, Chile, China, and Africa (covering nations such as Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, and Zambia), alongside majority-owned subsidiaries in India, and in Mexico and Central America (including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua).

Walmart International spans diverse formats under two main categories: retail and wholesale. These include supercenters, supermarkets, warehouse clubs like the membership-only Sam’s Club, cash-and-carry stores, and robust eCommerce offerings via websites and mobile apps like walmart.com.mx, walmart.ca, flipkart.com, PhonePe, and others.

The division’s strategy revolves around “bringing Walmart to the world and the world to Walmart.” This means leveraging its global network and localized expertise to deliver affordable products and services, helping millions of customers and members save money and live better daily.

A seamless omni-channel shopping experience is a cornerstone of Walmart International’s approach, integrating physical retail stores with eCommerce. This includes pickup and delivery services across most markets, with same-day delivery as a prominent feature.

Marketplace expansions also play a significant role, opening doors to enhanced fulfillment and advertising services. Walmart International’s merchandising strategy mirrors the breadth and depth of Walmart U.S., ensuring customers access a wide variety of products.

Sam’s Club U.S.: Sam’s Club U.S. operates as a membership-only warehouse club with 600 locations across 44 states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, alongside its online platform, samsclub.com.

Committed to offering a fast and seamless omni-channel experience, Sam’s Club U.S. integrates physical clubs with eCommerce solutions.

Members enjoy convenient services such as curbside pickup for contact-free shopping, the Scan & Go mobile checkout for skipping lines, and the innovative Just Go feature, introduced in fiscal 2025, which enables frictionless exits.

The club provides merchandise across four key categories: Grocery, General merchandise, Health and wellness, and Fuel.

Memberships come with added value, including a spouse/household card at no extra cost. Club members benefit from free curbside pickup for orders of $50 or more, while Plus members enjoy additional perks such as complimentary delivery-from-club, free shipping on $50+ orders, exclusive discounts, convenience features, and early access to shopping before regular hours.

Beginning in fiscal 2023, Sam’s Club U.S. launched a rewards program allowing members to earn Sam’s Cash on purchases, which can be redeemed for cash, used for future purchases, or applied toward membership fees.

Omni-Channel: Omni-channel refers to a strategy in commerce and customer engagement that provides a seamless and integrated experience across all channels, whether they are online, offline, or hybrid. It’s about making every interaction — from browsing products online to visiting a physical store—feel connected and consistent.

For example:

• In retail, omni-channel could mean a customer can browse products online, reserve an item on a mobile app, and pick it up in-store, all while receiving consistent information and support.

• In customer service, omni-channel ensures that whether a customer contacts a company via email, chat, phone, or social media, their inquiries and interactions are unified across these platforms.

The key idea is to break down silos between channels and prioritize the customer’s convenience. Businesses that adopt omni-channel approaches often see improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

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Insight & Summary of Walmart’s Retail Stores By Segment and Store Ownership Type

The following analysis consolidates the trends observed across Walmart’s stores breakdown, ownership type, and distribution facilities for the 2016–2026 period.

• Walmart’s total retail store count has evolved from 11,528 in 2016 to 10,955 in 2026 — a net reduction of 573 locations over a decade that masks a more complex underlying story of deliberate international portfolio rationalization offset by modest domestic stability. The segment mix has shifted meaningfully over the period: Walmart International’s share of total retail stores compressed from 54.6% in 2016 to a trough of 49.6% in 2022 following significant divestitures, before partially recovering to 52.4% by 2026 as the retained international markets resumed expansion. Walmart U.S.’s share correspondingly rose from 39.7% to a peak of 44.8% in 2022 before settling back to 42.1% in 2026, while Sam’s Club has maintained a remarkably stable 5.5–5.7% share throughout — consistent with its near-flat unit count strategy of growing productivity rather than locations.

• The store ownership data reveals one of the most significant structural shifts in the entire dataset. Through 2025, Walmart maintained a consistent owned-to-leased ratio of approximately 56–57% owned versus 43–44% leased across its total retail portfolio — a stable and deliberate balance that held essentially unchanged for nearly a decade. The 2026 data introduces a notable departure: owned stores declined sharply to 51.8% of total retail locations while leased stores rose to 48.2% — the closest the two categories have been throughout the entire period.

• This shift is most pronounced within Walmart U.S., where the owned share dropped from 87.7% in 2025 to 80.9% in 2026, and Sam’s Club, where owned stores fell from 85.5% to 77.2%. The magnitude of this single-year change is unusual and warrants close attention — it likely reflects a strategic decision to monetize owned real estate assets, potentially through sale-leaseback transactions, as part of Walmart’s broader capital reallocation toward technology and supply chain investment. Walmart International’s ownership profile has remained structurally leased-heavy throughout, with approximately 67–74% of locations leased — reflecting the practical realities of acquiring owned real estate in diverse international markets and the operational preference for capital-light entry in newer geographies.

• At the segment level, Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club have maintained high owned-store ratios — in the 85–88% range through 2025 — reflecting the long-standing preference for owning domestic real estate and the balance sheet stability that comes with it. The sharp 2026 decline in both segments’ owned ratios is therefore a meaningful departure from a decade of consistency and represents the most significant ownership structure change in the period analyzed. Walmart International, by contrast, has seen its owned share gradually decline from 33.5% in 2017 to 25.9% in 2026 — a steady drift toward a more leased-intensive international footprint that aligns with the portfolio’s ongoing geographic and format evolution.

• Distribution facilities have remained a relatively stable component of Walmart’s total property base, ranging between 337 and 408 facilities and consistently representing approximately 3.3–3.5% of total properties. The U.S. distribution network grew from 161 facilities in 2016 to a peak of 195 in 2025 before settling at 192 in 2026, while international distribution fluctuated between 176 and 226 — with the elevated international count in 2019 and 2020 likely reflecting legacy facilities in markets subsequently divested.

• By 2026, the U.S. and international distribution counts have converged to near-parity at 192 and 179 respectively — a balance that reflects the geographic scale of Walmart’s supply chain commitments across its two primary operating theaters. The overall distribution facility count, while modest in number relative to retail locations, underpins the entire physical retail and e-commerce fulfillment infrastructure, and its continued investment — as evidenced by the dramatic growth in supply chain capital expenditures discussed elsewhere — is the foundation upon which Walmart’s next phase of productivity and margin improvement will be built.

The table below combines Walmart’s retail stores numbers and mix, ownership type, and distribution facilities into a single view for the latest three fiscal years.

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Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, Walmart International – Retail Stores Breakdown and Mix

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

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Retail Stores – Owned or Leased

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

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Walmart U.S. Retail Stores – Owned or Leased

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

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Sam’s Club U.S. Retail Stores – Owned or Leased

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

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Walmart International Retail Stores – Owned or Leased

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

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Distribution Facilities – Regional Breakdown and Mix

Walmart’s operating segments consist of Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club U.S. The definitions of these segments are available here: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club U.S.

Apart from retail warehouses, Walmart operates quite a number of distribution facilities, as depicted in the respective chart and table.

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References and Credits

1. All financial figures presented were obtained and referenced from Walmart’s annual reports published on the company’s investor relations page: Walmart Investor Relations.

2. Pexels Images.

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Disclosure

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