24/7 Wall St.

It’s a marketing adage that keeping an existing customer is both cheaper and easier than wooing a new one. It takes time and money to become one of America’s most popular stores, but once there, it’s also difficult to dislodge such a company from its top position.

America’s most visited stores are popular for a variety of reasons. According to data provided by Placed, a consumer habits data service provider that monitors behavior of more than 150,000 American consumers at 150 million locations daily, the most popular brands are primarily in the fast food, discount retail, and pharmacy segments.

Six of the top 10 most popular stores are restaurants, one more than when Placed did a similar survey earlier this year. Interestingly the store that dropped off, 7-Eleven, was the only convenience store on the earlier list, and it has been replaced by another fast food chain.

Two big-box retailers and two drugstores rounded out the top 10. Part of it is a numbers game of course. The most popular retailer had more than 4,000 stores in the United States last year. The most popular drugstores had more than 7,000 locations each, and the most popular restaurants had more than 12,000 retail outlets apiece.

Store popularity also varies by gender and income level. Fast food is more popular with men, while retailers get more traffic from women. Americans with annual incomes greater than $100,000 were more likely to shop at big-box retailers and drugstores than Americans earning between $25,000 and $100,000 a year. Wealthier Americans were less likely to eat at fast food restaurants, however.

To determine the nation’s most popular stores, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from location analytics company Placed. Placed calculated the percentage of Americans who visited various stores in October 2014. The group also provided demographic and socioeconomic data on customers for various retailers and restaurants. These are indexed to a base of 100, representing the average American consumer. We also reviewed 2013 U.S. sales and store count data from companies’ financial filings, as well as advertising expenditure figures from Advertising Age (AdAge) covering 2012 and 2013.

These are the most popular stores in America.

10. Wendy’s
> Index score, women: N/A
> Index score, men: N/A
> Store count: 6,534
> One-year stock-price change: Down 0.12%
> Store category: Restaurants

Wendy’s is the newcomer to this list, having replaced 7-Eleven in the 10th spot. The burger chain is not listed on AdAge’s list of the top 100 national advertisers. Wendy’s announced in August that it plans to sell its 135 Canadian franchised stores to the franchise owners and is looking to cut its administrative costs by $30 million next year. Wendy’s stores are owned and operated by The Wendy’s Company (NASDAQ: WEN).

9. Taco Bell
> Index score, women: 94
> Index score, men: 106
> Store count: 6,109
> One-year stock-price change: Down 1.6%
> Store category: Restaurants

Taco Bell is owned by Yum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), which also owns KFC and Pizza Hut. The vast majority of the company’s 6,109 stores are located in the U.S., but the company sees international expansion as a long-term growth driver. Taco Bell is most popular with people earning annual incomes of $25,000 to $50,000. By age group, 18 to 34 year-olds are six percent more likely than the average American to visit the Tex-Mex food chain’s biggest fans, perhaps because the restaurants are open late and the food is inexpensive. Taco Bell was also ranked in the ninth spot earlier this year.

8. Burger King Worldwide
> Index score, women: 95
> Index score, men: 105
> Store count: 7,368
> One-year stock-price change: Up 63%
> Store category: Restaurants

Of all the fast food restaurants on this list, Burger King owns the fewest of its own stores. The company owns just 52 of its nearly 7,400 U.S. and Canadian locations, and it has agreed to merge with Canada’s Tim Hortons Inc. (NYSE: THI) in a deal that will make the surviving company a Canadian-based corporation. Burger King attracts 35 to 54 year-old, an older demographic than Taco Bell’s, but the dominant income level is the same.

7. CVS
> Index score, women: 107
> Index score, men: 92
> Store count: 7,779
> One-year stock-price change: Up 35%
> Store category: Drugstores

CVS changed its corporate name to CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) when it stopped selling cigarettes and other tobacco products earlier this fall. The move is projected to cost the company about $2 billion in annual revenue. The store’s customers skew heavily toward higher incomes: Compared to shoppers with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000, Americans earning more than $100,000 were more likely to visit a CVS. Only two of the stores on this list have a wealthier clientele.

6. Target
> Index score, women: 107
> Index score, men: 92
> Store count: 1,795 see page 17 – Y! Finance says numbe
> One-year stock-price change: Up 12%
> Store category: Discount stores

That Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) stock is up at all is something of a miracle. At right about this time last year the store suffered a data breach that compromised 70 million customer records before the hole was plugged. Target is the department store on the list that most appeals to Asian shoppers and to the highest income shoppers. Patrons earning between $50,000 and $100,000 were 37% more likely to visit Target than the average American. And Americans earning at least $100,000 were 60% more likely. Target spent nearly $1.7 billion on advertising in 2013. Of all the stores in this list, Target has by far the lowest store count.

5. Walgreen
> Index score, women: 105
> Index score, men: 94
> Store count: 8,309
> One-year stock-price change: Up 14.7%
> Store category: Drugstores

Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) stores were most popular with African Americans and Americans older than 55 years of age, the highest of any store on the list. Wealthier Americans earning at least $100,000 were nearly 20% more likely to visit a Walgreen store compared to the average American. The company expects to close its purchase of Alliance Boots in the first quarter of next year, but it has said it will not move its headquarters offshore.

4. Starbucks
> Index score, women: 100
> Index score, men: 100
> Store count: 14,191
> One-year stock-price change: down 1.6%
> Store category: Restaurants

Individuals earning at least $100,000 were 58% more likely than the average American to visit a Starbucks, second only to Target among companies reviewed. Competition has greatly intensified for the morning coffee customers in recent years. And while Starbucks’ earnings and revenues are rising, its growth is slowing, and most of it is coming from overseas. In its last earnings report, the coffee chain said it would open about 650 stores in the U.S. in 2015, about half of which will be company-owned and the rest licensed. Of the company’s 21,366 worldwide stores, half are owned and half are licensed.

3. Subway
> Index score, women: 95
> Index score, men: 105
> Store count: 26,901
> One-year stock-price change: N/A
> Store category: Restaurants

Unlike the other businesses on this list, Subway is privately held by Doctors Associates Inc. Globally, the company has more than 43,000 locations. The sandwiches are more favored by men, with Americans between the ages of 18 and 54 slightly more likely to eat there compared to the average American.

2. McDonald’s
> Index score, women: 97
> Index score, men: 103
> Store count: 14,278
> One-year stock-price change: Down 1.2%
> Store category: Restaurants

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) trails Subway in the number of stores both globally and in the U.S. The fast food chain also attracts far fewer customers who earn more than $100,000 compared to Subway. Individuals earning at least $100,000 were 20% less likely to visit a McDonald’s than the average American. The company’s recent struggles to grow same-store sales in the U.S. have not paid off, even though McDonald’s is the heaviest advertising spender among the restaurants, ranking 26th among all advertisers in 2013 with a total expenditure of $1.43 billion.

1. Walmart
> Index score, women: 106
> Index score, men: 93
> Store count: 4,344
> One-year stock-price change: Up 5.3%
> Store category: Discount stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is by far the largest company on this list, with more than $334 billion in U.S. retail sales in 2013, dwarfing the second largest retailer, Target, which posted revenues of $71 billion. Americans who make more than $100,000 a year are 11% less likely than an average American to visit a Walmart store, and Asian Americans are 32% less likely to visit the stores. Of the stores on this list, Walmart spent the most on advertising, $1.83 billion.