Mexico: Walmart and Tiendas 3B - Different Paths, Same Goal
- DRC Discount Retail Consulting GmbH
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
Discount Retail Chain Tiendas 3B advances with an almost unprecedented expansion speed, pushed by the simple, but forceful premise of the low price every day, while Walmart Mexico consolidates its presence from omnichannel sophistication, a peculiar scene is being drawn on the map of Mexican retail.
The results for the third quarter of 2025 confirm that both players are growing, but they are doing so from opposite philosophies. Walmart reports revenues in Mexico with an increase of 5.6%, a digital ecosystem that expands to 23.5 million active users and an eCommerce that advances 19% in GMV during the first nine months of the year.
Discounter Tiendas 3B, on the other hand, surprises with a 36.7% increase in quarterly revenues and an extraordinary 17.9% growth in same-store sales, driven by 131 openings in just three months. Two models, two speeds and the same objective: to capture the Mexican consumer in a context where price sensitivity sets the pace of spending.
Walmart is committed to the ecosystem; 3B, for expansion at all costs
What sets Walmart and 3B apart today is not only their size, but the way they have decided to grow.
Walmart favours a long-term plan based on three pillars that Cristian Barrientos Pozo repeats as a mantra: price, availability and omnichannel. The company can afford this luxury because it operates with mature structures: more than 1,370 stores enabled for On-Demand deliveries, a Marketplace that increases its SKU offer by 31%, financial services that grow 149% in loans and an EBITDA margin that, although adjusted, remains positive.
The case of Tiendas 3B is radically different. Its model depends on territorial expansion and extreme operational efficiency. In 12 months, it has added 528 stores and already operates 3,162 stores, almost reaching Walmart Mexico in number of points of sale. But that pace has a cost: the company reported a net loss of 1.424 billion pesos, dragged down by a strong non-cash expense of stock compensation. Even so, adjusted EBITDA grows 43.6% and shows that the business, without accounting effects, is gaining traction.
Omnichannel sophistication or territory dominance
The sharpest contrast between the two chains arises when observing on which terrain they compete best. Walmart dominates middle- and high-income urban areas, where its omnichannel proposition, from the Supercenter to Sam's, from the Marketplace to health programs, offers convenience, price and an ecosystem of services that is difficult to replicate.
The consumer who combines online shopping, express deliveries and loyalty to own private label brands finds in Walmex a platform that evolves with discipline.
Tiendas 3B, on the other hand, is consolidating itself as the day-to-day store for the most sensitive pocket. Its small assortment, direct logistics and light structure allow it to offer prices that redefine the expectations of the popular consumer. Where every peso counts, the hard discount becomes not only competitive, but almost inevitable. It is no coincidence that 3B already speaks openly of operating 14,000 stores: its vision of the country is granular, of absolute proximity, of presence in each neighbourhood and periphery.
Coexistence, competition and a market that demands more from everyone
The question isn't whether Walmart or 3B will "win" this race, because both companies are building on distinct victories.
Walmart wins from sophistication: it strengthens margins, deepens its digital ecosystem and anchors itself in a model capable of generating profitability while investing. 3B wins from volume: it advances as a territorial force that redefines the value of money in essential purchases, even sacrificing utility in the short term to cement an unprecedented national network.
If there is one thing this 3Q25 makes clear, it is that the Mexican consumer has changed and will continue to change: they want price, but also convenience; it wants proximity, but also digital channels; it demands availability, but rewards those who simplify their daily lives.
In this context, Walmart and 3B are not only competing: they are forcing each other to evolve. The battle for daily spending is no longer fought between formats, but between visions of the country. And Mexico, with its economic and territorial diversity, still has room, and demand, for both models. The challenge will be to see which of the two is able to better anticipate a consumer who buys differently, spends differently and decides differently.
The Network
In this duel for the essential shopping basket, the competitor that really nibbles at the heels of Tiendas 3B is Walmart's Warehouse format in Mexico and Central America. The opening of its 2,600th store under the Bodega Aurrera label confirms that Walmart's low-price format plays on exactly the same terrain as 3B: proximity, volume and accessibility. And it does so with a structural advantage that is difficult to match: more than 3 million square meters of infrastructure and three formats (Bodega, Mi Bodega and Express) designed to reach each neighbourhood at competitive prices.
If Tiendas 3B runs fast, Walmart runs farther and with more muscle. That is why, in the segment where every peso matters, Bodega Aurrera is, today, the direct and most powerful competitor that Tiendas 3B faces.
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