Here's The Difference Between Walmart America And Whole Foods America

Walmart country and Whole Foods country are very different places.

Morgan Stanley is out with a retail "atlas" that breaks down retail stores by geography. Based on their data, we made the following maps showing the number of Walmarts and Whole Foods per one million people in each state.

Here's Walmart: You can see it absolutely dominates in the center of the country. Arkansas, where Walmart was born, has the most per capita, with Oklahoma a close second. Walmart is much less popular on the coasts.

Here's Whole Foods: It's not that big in the center of the country, but it's huge on the coasts. Colorado (is also huge for Whole Foods, as it's the home of Wild Oats, a chain that Whole Foods acquired).

There are, of course, far more Walmarts than Whole Foods in each state overall, but it's fun to see where the stores are more and less concentrated. Bottom line: Whole Foods America is much more coastal, while WalMart America is much more central.

Here are tables showing the number and population-adjusted number of Walmarts and Whole Foods stores in each state: