Amazon, Walmart, and Target reap the rewards of Covid restrictions

When stay-at-home orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic forced many US brick-and-mortar retailers to close up shop late winter and into this spring, some industry observers feared the government measures would widen the existing gap between the retail industry’s haves and have-nots.A few months later, that fear has become reality.Amazon, Walmart, and Target all recently reported record sales or profits metrics for their second quarters ending in June or July, as government-mandated store closures gave consumers fewer options for brick-and-mortar shopping and more consumers moved their spending online. Those rulings also permitted them to sell nonessential items in their stores like apparel, beauty items, and home furnishings while competitors focused exclusively on those categories couldn’t sell them because they were forced shut for being “nonessential.” Even with its strong e-commerce numbers, nearly 83 percent of Target’s sales in the quarter still took place at its stores.