Guess Where Millennials Love to Shop

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The most popular retailer with millennials is (drumroll, please) Wal-Mart.

Yep. You read that correctly. Millennials’ favorite place to shop is Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, Ad Age reports.

“Millennials now, as a generation, like Wal-Mart the best, more so than Generation X, more so than boomers,” Matt Kistler, Wal-Mart senior VP-consumer insights and analytics, told Ad Age.

Wal-Mart is unique in that it’s the most popular and most hated retailer in the United States. It’s ranked dead last when it comes to customer satisfaction, yet it remains Americans’ most frequent shopping destination.

Learning that Wal-Mart is millennials’ top spot to shop may come as a surprise (even to some inside the company), Wal-Mart chief marketing officer Stephen Quinn told Ad Age, but it makes sense if you think about their growing need for convenience.

“As millennials become time-crunched with relationships and kids coming along, it’s opening up a strong need for them to have a one-stop shop,” Quinn said.

And Wal-Mart fits the bill. It’s rated higher than Target, Kroger, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Costco, among shoppers younger than 24, Ad Age said.

Of course, it’s likely that Wal-Mart’s price positioning also appeals to millennial shoppers, who witnessed the Great Recession as they came of age and graduated from school.

“The millennial customer grew up with a lot of hardship,” Kistler said. “They see Wal-Mart as a place where they can save money.”

Check out “Wal-Mart Accused of Misusing Nonprofit in Push for Urban Stores.”

Are you surprised to see how popular Wal-Mart is with millennials? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.

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