The general merchandising giants — namely Walmart and Target — have been winners so far this year in a bruising retail market even as they compete against an ever-growing Amazon, which has the advantage of largely “profit-agnostic” investors, in the words of O’Shea.
In the first quarter, Walmart and Target both made gains in online sales as well as in their stores, as the differences between store sales and online sales get murkier. Both have relied on their store base as an advantage, which can act as delivery nodes and pickup locations.
