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Shopping: retail empires and where to actually buy

Two genuinely different stories — the commercial giants building retail empires, and the real, current best places to spend your own money online.

Commercial & Retail Giants Personal Shopping Secret Savings

Investment angle: Nebraska Furniture Mart — the largest home furnishings retailer in North America — is Berkshire Hathaway's quiet retail giant, and its story is genuinely remarkable. Warren Buffett bought 90% of it in 1983 for $60 million with a 1¼-page contract and a handshake, no audit, trusting founder Rose Blumkin's word alone. Blumkin ("Mrs. B"), a Belarusian immigrant who started the business with a $500 loan in 1937 under the motto "sell cheap and tell the truth," worked in the store until age 103. Today NFM's Omaha flagship typically generates about $9 million in sales weekly — and once hit $44 million in a single promotional week, a figure Buffett himself called unbelievable to any other retailer. NFM plus sister brands R.C. Willey, Star Furniture, and Jordan's Furniture make up roughly 17% of Berkshire's retail revenue, while Berkshire Hathaway Automotive alone contributes about 69% — showing just how large the auto retail side of Buffett's empire actually is relative to furniture. The real current story: NFM is opening a store in Austin in spring 2027, encroaching for the first time on sister brand Star Furniture's home territory, breaking a four-decade no-overlap strategy.

How the Biggest Players Actually Match Up

CompanyRevenue (2026)Market CapEmployeesWhat Sets Them Apart Walmart$713.16B~$1.01T~~2.1MFirst brick-and-mortar retailer to cross $1T market cap (Feb 2026); 10 straight years of revenue growth Amazon~~$717B~$2.6-2.8T~~1.56MNear-identical top-line to Walmart now, but revenue mix leans on cloud & advertising, not physical retail Costco~~$270B*~~$400-480B~~340,000Gaining US grocery share from Walmart (8.2% vs Walmart's 20.4%, and closing) Target$104.78B~$58.5B~415,000Smallest of the four by far — Walmart's revenue is roughly 6x Target's

*Approximate, less precisely reported than the other three in available 2026 sources. Figures are as reported at time of writing and subject to revision — verify current numbers directly before making any investment decision.

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