INDUSTRY INSIGHT · Q1 2026
BIG BOX RETAIL IS MOVING FAST —
IS YOUR INFRASTRUCTURE KEEPING UP?
Q1 2026 results confirm retail’s expansion momentum is real. But growth at this pace demands a physical layer that won’t let you down.
+3.7%
U.S. retail sales growth, Q1 2026 vs. prior year
650+
Walmart locations slated for remodel in 2026
225
New ALDI stores planned in the U.S. this year
NET · April 2026 · Infrastructure & Low Voltage
THE NUMBERS
Q1 2026 confirmed what retail operators have been feeling on the floor: the industry is in full expansion mode. Total U.S. retail and food services sales hit $752.1 billion in March alone, up 4.0% year-over-year, with Q1 overall coming in 3.7% above the same period last year. Retail trade specifically outpaced the headline, climbing 4.2% over prior year. The big box segment led the charge.
Walmart — the category’s bellwether — posted Q1 revenue of $165.6 billion, up ~2.5% year-over-year, and hit a notable milestone: its first profitable quarter for e-commerce both in the U.S. and globally. Average transaction values rose 2.8%, store traffic was up 1.6%, and the company has plans to remodel 650-plus supercenters while opening ~20 net-new locations through early 2027.
WHO’S BUILDING, WHO’S REMODELING
Beyond Walmart, the 2026 expansion pipeline is substantial. ALDI is targeting 225 new U.S. stores. Costco is pushing toward 30 new warehouse openings annually. Dollar General and Dollar Tree together have 1,300-plus openings planned. In the most-watched new-retail story of the year, Amazon has filed plans for nearly 225,000-square-foot big-box concept in suburban Chicago — larger than a Walmart Supercenter — combining fresh groceries, general merchandise, and integrated app-based fulfillment.
“For every one of those locations, there is structured cabling to pull, wireless to commission, POS infrastructure to deploy, and fiber to run. The physical layer doesn’t build itself.”
WHAT THIS MEANS ON THE GROUND
Remodels present a challenge new builds don’t: live stores, compressed timelines, and zero tolerance for disruption. A single weekend of POS downtime during a high-traffic period costs far more than the infrastructure project itself. That’s the environment NET works in every day — multi-site rollouts, phased store remodels, and new-location buildouts across North America, on schedule, while the store stays open.
• NET handles 1,456 tickets per day with a 96% single-trip success rate — because retail can’t afford second visits any more than it can afford downtime.
With retail capital flowing into physical locations at this pace, the contractors who can handle scale, meet compressed timelines, and operate across dozens of states simultaneously are the ones getting the call. The Q1 numbers are a green light — the question is whether your low voltage partner is ready to move as fast as you are.
