It’s that time of year again, the time the editors of MMR select the outstanding retailers of the year. Sometimes we recognize an individual; at other times we choose a company. In either case, it is our annual attempt to isolate the best and the brightest, to designate those people and organizations that have distinguished themselves in a crowded field, in an arena in which the best are plentiful and the best of the best are truly outstanding.

This year, we have isolated four individuals and the organizations they represent and epitomize. Two represent the discount store industry and are noteworthy because they have been emblematic of the best that retail segment has had to offer for some considerable amount of time.

The third honoree is a regional grocery retailer, here again one that has invariably placed among the most outstanding in the supermarket industry. The fourth is a new and not-so-new retailer that has been a key performer for many years yet has been routinely relegated to the second tier of mass retailers, regularly pushed aside by flashier and more easily recognized competitors. No longer. Last year (the awards are given for outstanding performance in the year just ended) Dollar General moved to the very forefront of mass retailers in America, bidding winningly for sales, shopper loyalty and name recognition.

So it’s particularly fitting that the editors of MMR have selected Dollar General as the publication’s Mass Market Retailer of the Year. In a retail category sometimes unfairly criticized as lacking in excitement, innovation and trendsetting, Dollar General and that retailer’s outstanding top management team have demonstrated that store size and depth of assortment need not minimize or eliminate a retailer’s contribution to the retail marketplace. Put another way, no mass retailer in 2019 performed to the level and with the efficiency of Dollar General.

Speaking of recognition, did any mass retailer out-market Target in 2019? The answer, clearly, is no. So this retailer, as it has done so often for so long, stood alone in its ability to market its brands to its customers, to attract shoppers with tried-and-true merchandise and entice them with new offerings, often before its competition even knew these offerings existed. So congratulations to Target for yet one more recognition in an array of awards that stretches back almost to its founding in 1962. Of course we take pride of ownership here and believe, with some degree of certainly, that this award is the most deserved yet for this most deserving retailer.

Looking for an outstanding grocery retailer, national or regional? Look no further than Wakefern, the New Jersey-based supermarketer that can compete, effectively, with any practitioner of that art anywhere in America. Walk into a Wakefern supermarket and expect the expected — and the unexpected. While every practitioner of the grocery art is propounding the newest and most evident, Wakefern is offering the newer-still and not so obvious. Thus, a customer looking for something old and something new need only look to Wakefern to provide both. Of all our editors’ choices for 2019, this is the one we’re most proud of.

Then there’s Walmart. In the midst of its 57th, or is it 58th, year, this most exemplary of mass retailers is reinventing itself yet again, this time by introducing its vast shopping audience to omnichannel retailing. Is this the first brick-and-mortar retailer to introduce digital shopping to its customers? Not even close. Ever hear of a company called Amazon? Is it, in fact, late to the party? Probably. Would you bet against Walmart in any endeavor, on any playing field? Don’t even consider it. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is simply the best there is at whatever it does. We at MMR believe this will be no different. Gimmie a W.