Margins for big retail chains are actually pretty good . Provided they have decent low cost distribution centresnot target . I know Walmart will only get products if they can get them at the lowest cost per item possible . They ' re grossing sub $ 100 , 000 a day . at least in any ~ 50 , 000 population centre . If they had 50100 working 8 hour days at an average of $ 13 hr . and that ' s being generous . that ' s only $ 5 , 200 $ 10 , 400 day to keep everything running . Take into account 3 % shrink on that gross and add it to the highest payout and its $ 13 , 400 . Knowing that they keep the margins at least in the 25 % 30 % range , that would average out to be about $ 12 , 000 $ 17 , 000 profit . Every day , 247365 . except major holidays . Then take into consideration that the sub $ 100 k we started with is just your typical Wednesday . Weekends , holidays , they bolster that net profit . at least 8 x a month . Without even adding more staff to pay . They ' re profiting $ 360 , 000 $ 510 , 000 ON THE LOW END . Every month . $ 4 , 000 , 000 $ 6 , 000 , 000 year . At one store out of thousands . Again , take that number and inflate it to account for these big ticket weekends and even your typical weekend . And scratch in the outlier big and small markets . Walmart consistently gets over $ 100 BILLION in revenue every year . While net profit , on paper , is only $ 3 $ 4 billion . after the board , investors and corporate take a cut . Instead of paying their employees more , they take that left over profit and spend it all on growth . Because there is essentially nowhere else to put it . It goes towards building , renovating , upgrading , marketing and more leverage in acquisition . They ' re too big to be stopped . Too big to be bought . Too big to fail . They can only grow . They are cancer .