Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.) was named the Most Admired Company in the General Merchandiser category, and was fifth overall, in Fortune Magazine's annual Most Admired Companies survey. The world's largest retail organization posted an average score of 7.59 – an amalgam of various criteria, including Management Quality, Product Quality, Innovativeness and Investment Value.
The Home Depot (Atlanta) ranked ninth in the overall list, and led the Specialty Retailer category with a score of 8.33. Walgreen (Deerfield, Ill.) was rated most admired in the Food and Drug Stores category.
Rounding out the Top Ten in the General Merchandiser category were Target (Minneapolis); Nordstrom (Seattle); May Department Stores (St. Louis); Federated Department Stores (Cincinnati); Saks Inc. (Birmingham, Ala.); Sears Roebuck & Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.); Dillard's (Little Rock, Ark.); J. C. Penney (Plano, Texas); and Kmart Corp. (Troy, Mich.).
The rest of the Specialty Retailer category, following Home Depot, were: The Gap (San Francisco); Costco Wholesale (Issaquah, Wash.); The Limited (Columbus, Ohio); Best Buy (Minneapolis); Lowes (Wilkesboro, N.C.); Circuit City Group (Richmond, Va.); The TJX Cos. (Framingham, Mass.); Office Depot (Delray Beach, Fla.); and Toys 'R'Us (Paramus, N.J.).
The Top 10 Food & Drug Stores, following Walgreen, were Safeway Inc. (Pleasanton, Calif.); Publix Super Markets (Lakeland, Fla.); Kroger (Cincinnati); Albertson's (Boise, Idaho); CVS (Woonsocket, R.I.); Ahold USA (Chantilly, Va.); Food Lion (the subsidiary of Delhaize America, Salisbury, S.C.); Winn-Dixie Stores (Jacksonville, Fla.); and, bringing up the rear, Rite Aid Corp. (Camp Hill, Fla.). Rite Aid, with an overall retail ranking of 500, was among the Bottom Ten in the total list.
General Electric Co. (Fairfield, Conn.) was rated the Number One Most Admired Company in this year's listing. The rest of the overall Top Ten were: (2) Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.); (3) Dell Computer Corp. (Round Rock, Texas); (4) Cisco Systems (San Jose, Calif.); (6) Southwest Airlines (Dallas); (7) Berkshire Hathaway (Omaha, Neb.); (8) Intel Corp. (San Francisco); and (10) Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, N.J.).