How much money does Walmart make in ridiculously short periods of time like seconds, minutes, and hours? A lot. An unbelievable, almost unimaginable amount of money. Keep reading to find out exactly how much this retail giant pulls in day after day.
As the largest company in the world by revenue, Walmart has earnings that are hard to comprehend. In this in-depth guide, I‘ll break down Walmart‘s income from seconds and minutes all the way up to their multi-billion dollar yearly sales.
Whether you‘re an avid shopper looking to understand how much profit your purchases generate, or just fascinated by massive corporations, you‘ll discover eye-opening details about how insanely profitable Walmart really is. Let‘s dive in!
How Much Does Walmart Earn Per Second?
Let‘s start by looking at Walmart‘s earnings on the smallest scale possible – per second.
According to Walmart‘s latest annual report, the company had total revenue of $524 billion in 2020. That works out to $16,592 in sales per second.
In just one second, Walmart rings up over $16,500 in cash registers worldwide.
To put their per second revenue into perspective:
- The average US worker earns only $30 per second based on median annual salary of around $60,000.
- It would take the typical American over 550 seconds of work to earn what Walmart makes in just one second.
Truly mindboggling earnings speed for this retail juggernaut.
| Time Period | Walmart Revenue |
|---|---|
| Per second | $16,592 |
But it gets even crazier. Walmart‘s net profit margin is around 3.5%. That means for every $100 in sales, Walmart keeps $3.50 in profit.
Applying that margin to their per second revenue of $16,592, we can estimate Walmart earns roughly $581 in net profit per second.
That‘s right – nearly $600 in pure profit is added to Walmart‘s bottom line every single second.
In the time it takes you to snap your fingers, this company has already banked a few hundred bucks.
Table comparing Walmart‘s per second revenue vs profit:
| Metric | Per Second |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $16,592 |
| Estimated Profit | $581 |
So in just 1 tick of the clock, Walmart pulls in over $16,500 in sales and nearly $600 in profit. That gives you a sense of how unbelievably fast this company generates cash.
How Much Does Walmart Make Per Minute?
Let‘s move up from seconds to minutes.
We know Walmart makes approximately $16,592 per second in revenue. Multiplied by 60 seconds, that equates to…
$995,520 per minute
Simply jaw-dropping. Close to one million dollars in sales every single minute of every day.
To put Walmart‘s per minute revenue in perspective:
- It would take the average Walmart employee over 15 years to earn $995,520 before taxes
- The typical American‘s entire lifetime earnings are only around $1.7 million – Walmart makes more than half that every minute
- If you had 1 million dollars, and spent $1 every minute on the minute, it would take you over 1,900 years to spend it all
Walmart‘s hourly earnings highlight the massive scale of this retail empire. The amount of money this company generates every 60 seconds is difficult to comprehend.
Visualizing $1 million dollars vs Walmart‘s revenue per minute:
Walmart earns over $995,000 per minute – similar to this $1 million dollar stack of $100 bills
And again, not all that revenue flows to Walmart‘s bottom line. After costs, their estimated profit is around 3.5% of sales.
So Walmart likely earns over $34,843 in profit per minute.
| Time Span | Revenue Per Minute | Est. Profit Per Minute |
|---|---|---|
| Per Minute | $995,520 | $34,843 |
It‘s astonishing that Walmart can ring up almost $1 million per minute in registers, and pocket over $34,000 in profit every 60 seconds.
Truly an amount of money that‘s hard to even visualize. But it gives you a sense of Walmart‘s earnings power on a minute scale.
How Much Money Does Walmart Make Per Hour?
Clearly, Walmart earns an insane amount each minute. But how much does that work out to per hour?
Since we know Walmart makes approximately $995,520 per minute in revenue, multiply that by 60 minutes and you get:
$59,731,200 in total revenue per hour
That‘s right – Walmart rings up over $59.7 million per hour in sales at its 11,500 stores worldwide.
- Every hour of every day, Walmart registers are ringing up a mind-blowing $59+ million in customer purchases. Hour after hour, day after day.
Let‘s take a minute to appreciate how much money that really is:
- $59.7 million is enough money to buy over 1,500 brand new Tesla Model 3s priced at $40,000 each
- If you had $59.7 million and bought one of those Teslas every hour, it would take you over 68 years to spend it all
- The median home value in America is around $250,000. You could buy nearly 240 houses per hour with $59.7 million
- More than 3,300 Americans have a net worth over $10 million. You could pay ALL their yearly salaries with just one hour of Walmart‘s revenue.
I don‘t know about you, but I can‘t even envision having $59.7 million to spend in an entire lifetime, let alone burning through that sum in 60 minutes.
But for Walmart, earning over $59 million per hour seems routine. This chart really emphasizes the scale of Walmart‘s hourly earnings:
| Time Period | Revenue Per Hour |
|---|---|
| Per Hour | $59,731,200 |
And again, Walmart‘s estimated profit margin is around 3.5% of total revenue. So they likely pocket over $2.1 million per hour in profit.
That‘s a hefty hourly "paycheck"!
| Metric | Per Hour |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $59,731,200 |
| Estimated Profit | $2,090,592 |
In one hour, Walmart brings in enough revenue to fund a small nation. And the company earns these kind of enormous figures hour after hour, like clockwork.
How Much Money Does Walmart Make in a Day?
Now let‘s look at Walmart‘s earnings on a daily scale.
Given their hourly revenue is around $59.7 million, over 24 hours in a day Walmart earns approximately:
$1.4 billion per day
That‘s right – Walmart generates over one and a half billion dollars in revenue every single day.
I don‘t know about you, but I can‘t even picture what it‘s like to earn $1.4 billion in a day. That‘s an almost inconceivable amount of money.
Let‘s try to wrap our heads around how much $1.4 billion really is:
- $1.4 billion could buy you over 35 million chocolate bars at $0.50 each. Imagine having 35 million chocolate bars delivered to your doorstep every morning.
- The average daily revenue of a Walmart Supercenter is around $100,000. You could operate over 14,000 Supercenters for a day with $1.4 billion.
- It would take over 50 years for an average pro athlete making $10 million per year to earn $1.4 billion before taxes. Walmart makes that in one day.
- If you tried to physically count to $1.4 billion and counted non-stop, it would take you 43 years. Walmart zooms past that sum every 24 hours.
As you can see, $1.4 billion is an absolutely massive amount of money. Now imagine earning that every single day like Walmart does. Mind blowing.
| Time Frame | Walmart‘s Revenue |
|---|---|
| Per day | $1.4 billion |
And again, Walmart‘s estimated profit is around 3.5% of total sales. So their daily profit equates to roughly $49 million.
Essentially pure profit straight to the bottom line.
| Metric | Per Day |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $1.4 billion |
| Estimated Profit | $49 million |
So on top of ringing up over $1 billion per day at registers, Walmart pockets almost $50 million in profit as well. An insane amount of earnings power.
How Much Does Walmart Make Per Month?
Expanding from days to months, let‘s look at Walmart‘s monthly revenue.
Based on $1.4 billion daily, Walmart earns around $42 billion per month in total sales.
That‘s right – over $42 billion dollars earned each and every month.
I know we‘ve been looking at some huge numbers. But earning $42 billion in just 30 days takes Walmart‘s earnings to yet another level.
Let‘s take a minute to really visualize how much money Walmart rakes in every month:
- $42 billion could buy you over 1.4 billion fast food kids meals priced at $5 each
- The average Monthly revenue of a Walmart supercenter is around $3 million. You could operate over 13,000 supercenters for an entire month with $42 billion
- The net worth of multi-billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos is around $200 billion. Walmart earns a fifth of that every single month.
- More than 15 million Americans have a net worth of $1 million or more. You could pay ALL of them a monthly salary with Walmart‘s monthly revenue.
Unless you‘re a billionaire, it‘s impossible to even fathom having $42 billion in cash each month. But for Walmart, that‘s just 30 days of work.
| Time Period | Revenue Per Month |
|---|---|
| Per Month | $42 billion |
And as always, Walmart pockets around 3.5% of total sales as profit. That equates to over $1.47 billion in profit per month.
So not only does Walmart ring up an inconceivable $42 billion at registers monthly, they also deposit over $1.4 billion in profit in the bank.
| Metric | Per Month |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $42 billion |
| Estimated Profit | $1.47 billion |
Truly astounding figures. And this is just Walmart‘s monthly earnings. The yearly numbers are even more mind-blowing.
How Much Money Does Walmart Earn Annually?
Finally, let‘s look at Walmart‘s total earnings on a yearly basis.
Based on roughly $42 billion per month in revenue, Walmart takes in around:
$508 billion annually
We‘re talking over half a trillion dollars in total revenue every year for Walmart.
I don‘t even know where to begin describing how much money that really is:
- $508 billion is more than the GDP of countries like Belgium, Sweden, and Poland
- If you tried to physically count to $508 billion, counting $1 per second non-stop, it would take you over 16,000 years – longer than human civilization has existed
- The average annual revenue of a Walmart supercenter is $35-$50 million. You could operate 10,000 – 14,000 supercenters for a year with $508 billion.
- Over 1.4 million Americans have a net worth over $1 million. You could pay every single one of them a yearly salary with just Walmart‘s annual revenue.
Earning over $508 billion annually puts Walmart in a totally different financial universe compared to almost any other company. The scale of their yearly earnings is truly unmatched.
| Time Period | Annual Revenue |
|---|---|
| Per Year | $508 billion |
And as always, Walmart‘s profit is around 3.5% of total sales. That works out to over $17.8 billion in profit per year.
To recap, in addition to their half a trillion dollars in yearly revenue, Walmart also pockets almost $18 billion in profit annually.
| Metric | Per Year |
|---|---|
| Total Revenue | $508 billion |
| Estimated Profit | $17.8 billion |
So there you have it. From seconds to minutes to hours to days, months and years – Walmart‘s earning power is simply staggering.
The pace at which this retail giant accumulates wealth is unrivaled. By any time metric, Walmart generates an astounding amount of money.
How Does Walmart Make So Much Money?
At this point you may be wondering – how exactly does Walmart make over half a trillion dollars per year? What‘s driving these massive revenue figures?
There are a few key factors that allow Walmart to generate such astronomical profits across small and large time periods:
1. Massive Scale – With over 11,500 stores worldwide and 1.5 million U.S. employees, Walmart simply has unrivaled retail scale. The company can leverage its size for efficiency and use its buying power to demand the lowest costs from suppliers. This creates a competitive advantage.
2. Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) – By using its scale to negotiate rock-bottom prices from vendors, Walmart can actually afford to offer customers lower prices than competitors and still turn a healthy profit. This allows Walmart to outcompete rivals on price.
3. Grocery Sales – Over 56% of Walmart‘s revenue comes from U.S. grocery sales. Walmart is the #1 grocer in America. Groceries drive frequent store visits and have high profit margins. This segment is key to Walmart‘s earnings.
4. In-Store Services – From auto care to vision centers, Walmart offers specialized in-store services that increase convenience and provide new revenue streams beyond simple retail.
5. Online Sales – Ecommerce now makes up over 10% of Walmart‘s total revenue. Options like curbside pickup and delivery add customer convenience and continued growth.
Thanks to advantages in scale, pricing, groceries, services and ecommerce, Walmart is an earnings juggernaut – making insane money across seconds, minutes, hours, and years.
How Does Walmart‘s Revenue Compare to Other Retailers?
To fully appreciate Walmart‘s insane earnings power, let‘s see how their financials compare to competitors:
Walmart vs. Amazon – While Amazon has greater profit margins, Walmart still generates 63% more total annual revenue at over $500 billion vs Amazon‘s $310 billion.
Walmart vs. Kroger – As America‘s largest supermarket chain, Kroger earned $132 billion in 2020 – around a quarter of Walmart‘s yearly sales.
Walmart vs. Home Depot – With $132 billion in annual revenue, Home Depot seems huge but still trails Walmart in yearly sales by over $375 billion.
Walmart vs. Target – Target comes closest with $93 billion in 2020 sales, but that‘s less than a fifth of Walmart‘s yearly earnings.
Though Amazon gets more investor buzz, Walmart still dominates the overall U.S. retail landscape in terms of raw revenue. The company is in a league of its own when it comes to sales across all time periods.
The Bottom Line on Walmart‘s Insane Revenue
After breaking down the numbers second-by-second, minute-by-minute, and year-by-year – Walmart‘s earning stats are simply mind-boggling:
- Over $16,000 per second in revenue
- Almost $1 million per minute
- Over $59 million per hour
- More than $1.4 billion daily
- Over $42 billion monthly
- $508 billion annually
From the smallest fractions of time to full years, Walmart generates an unbelievable amount of money. The pace at which this retail giant accumulates cash is unrivaled.
To put it plainly, Walmart is a money-making machine. The company earns sums so massive they are hard for most people to fully comprehend.
So the next time you‘re browsing the aisles at Walmart, take a moment to appreciate the astonishing scale of this retail empire. Every second, every minute, every day, Walmart‘s registers are raking in almost inconceivable amounts of money.
