When Americans hit the roads heading somewhere other than work, a safe bet says they have one destination in mind:
Walmart.
That’s because the nation’s biggest retailer is also the most popular destination for the nation’s motorists, a study of navigation app voice searches from 2015 to 2018 reveals.
Drivemode’s data team analyzed verbal searches from 876K anonymized Android drivers, excluding requests for “home” or “work,” and ranked the twenty most common requests nationally and in ten states. The voice-searches are called “requests” or “requested destinations” for this report.
Here are some of key findings:
- Drivers request Walmart more than any other destination; three times more often than the next most popular destinations of McDonald’s and Costco.
- Nearly one-half of all drivers’ requests are to just nine businesses: Walmart, McDonald’s, Costco, The Home Depot, Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, Lowe's, and Walgreens; those destinations account for 48.85% of all voice-searched navigation requests.
- Nationally, the most popular destination categories are grocery stores (30.13%), fast food restaurants (21.29%), and consumer shopping (17.40%). Other categories include banking, gas, school, and places of worship. For the purposes of this study, Walmart, Target, and Costco were included in the category of Grocery stores
- Nationally, drivers going to Walmart were most likely to go to McDonalds over any other destination within the same month. Despite the national popularity of Walmart, US drivers going to Lowe’s were more likely to also go to Home Depot than to Walmart within the same month.
- Regional variations make some businesses unusually popular in certain states:
- In-N-Out Burger, a burger chain whose stronghold is the southwest and Pacific coast, is the fourth and third most popular destination in California and Texas respectively, though nationally the burger chain is only number fifteen.
- In Georgia, where Chick-fil-A is headquartered, it comes in at number five among most popular destinations; it is sixteenth nationally.
- In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, WaWa, an east-coast grocery chain, is a top-five destination. It doesn’t crack the top twenty nationally.
“What motivates American drivers? Commutes and commerce,” said Yo Koga, Drivemode CEO. “If they’re not driving to work, this new study shows that Americans get behind the wheel to spend money somewhere, mostly on food. They’re especially drawn to large businesses like Walmart and McDonald’s that advertise extensively and are available, accessible, and convenient in most American communities. In light Amazon’s e-commerce success, it's clear that consumers still enjoy selecting their produce with their own hands or being served a hot burger and fresh fries.”
“While some Americans are driving to run other errands, like to the post office or the bank, that’s not nearly as common as retail-related trips,” said Koga. “This study underscores just how much traffic on America’s roadways can be attributed purchasing habits, particularly when the purchases are edible.”
The table below shows the overall percentage for the most frequently requested destinations nationwide, as well as the relative percentage within that business category:
Rank | Top 20 most requested businesses | Percentage of requests nationwide | Business Category | Percentage of requests nationwide, within business category |
| 1 | Walmart | 16.75% | Grocery | 43.38% |
| 2 | McDonald’s | 5.69% | Fast Food | 27.22% |
| 3 | Costco | 5.20% | Grocery | 14.86% |
| 4 | The Home Depot | 5.08% | Shopping | 22.51% |
| 5 | Target | 4.44% | Grocery | 9.84% |
| 6 | Starbucks | 3.57% | Fast Food | 12.51% |
| 7 | Best Buy | 2.84% | Shopping | 12.28% |
| 8 | Lowe's | 2.83% | Shopping | 11.54% |
| 9 | Walgreens | 2.44% | Shopping | 9.23% |
| 10 | US Post Office | 2.38% | N/A | N/A |
| 11 | Shell | 1.99% | Gas | 18.21% |
| 12 | CVS | 1.84% | Shopping | 6.72% |
| 13 | Sam’s Club | 1.84% | Shopping | 6.98% |
| 14 | Taco Bell | 1.67% | Fast Food | 4.91% |
| 15 | In-N-Out Burger | 1.52% | Fast Food | 4.89% |
| 16 | Chick-fil-A | 1.51% | Fast Food | 4.99% |
| 17 | Wells Fargo Bank | 1.48% | Banking | 30.86% |
| 18 | Wendy’s | 1.47% | Fast Food | 4.76% |
| 19 | Burger King | 1.43% | Fast Food | 5.81% |
| 20 | BP | 1.43% | Gas | 13.08% |
The following table shows the five most popular navigation voice searches in ten states.
Rank By State | Top 5 most requested businesses | Percentage of driver requests overall, per state |
| CALIFORNIA | ||
| 1 | Costco | 9.99% |
| 2 | Walmart | 8.60% |
| 3 | Target | 6.58% |
| 4 | In-N-Out Burger | 6.01% |
| 5 | McDonald’s | 5.50% |
| FLORIDA | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 20.05% |
| 2 | McDonald’s | 5.58% |
| 3 | The Home Depot | 5.08% |
| 4 | Starbucks | 3.55% |
| 5 | Lowe's | 3.43% |
| GEORGIA | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 18.99% |
| 2 | Kroger | 9.30% |
| 3 | The Home Depot | 6.20% |
| 4 | McDonald’s | 4.65% |
| 5 | Chick-fil-a | 3.88% |
| NEW JERSEY | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 10.35% |
| 2 | The Home Depot | 7.63% |
| 3 | Wawa | 5.99% |
| 4 | Target | 4.90% |
| 5 | Best Buy | 4.63% |
| NEW YORK | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 11.91% |
| 2 | The Home Depot | 8.31% |
| 3 | McDonald’s | 6.07% |
| 4 | BP | 5.84% |
| 5 | Dunkin' Donuts | 4.49% |
| NORTH CAROLINA | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 22.51% |
| 2 | Target | 4.98% |
| 3 | Lowe's | 4.98% |
| 4 | McDonald’s | 4.33% |
| 5 | Best Buy | 3.68% |
| OHIO | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 13.76% |
| 2 | Speedway | 7.30% |
| 3 | Kroger | 6.74% |
| 4 | McDonald’s | 6.18% |
| 5 | Best Buy | 5.06% |
| PENNSYLVANIA | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 21.45% |
| 2 | Wawa | 8.46% |
| 3 | Target | 6.65% |
| 4 | Lowe's | 4.53% |
| 5 | CVS | 3.93% |
| TEXAS | ||
| 1 | Walmart | 17.94% |
| 2 | The Home Depot | 6.12% |
| 3 | In-N-Out Burger | 4.94% |
| 4 | McDonald’s | 4.94% |
| 5 | Starbucks | 4.30% |
| WASHINGTON | ||
| 1 | Costco | 13.32% |
| 2 | Walmart | 12.09% |
| 3 | The Home Depot | 6.15% |
| 4 | Starbucks | 6.15% |
| 5 | Lowe's | 5.33% |
DESTINATION CORRELATIONS ACROSS THE U.S.
Drivers who request certain destinations are prone to have other favorite destinations, too.
To find these relationships, Drivemode aggregated, indexed, and ranked driver destinations then mapped those destinations to each other to show the frequency of visits to businesses on a monthly basis.The strongest correlations between these destinations— what are called “co-occurrences” for when a driver visits both businesses within a month—are ranked below by frequency on a national level for US drivers in aggregate.
| Rank | Strongest driver relationships between businesses nationally (most co-occurrences) |
| 1 | Walmart & McDonald’s |
| 2 | Walmart & The Home Depot |
| 3 | Walmart & Target |
| 4 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| 5 | Walmart & Costco |
| 6 | Walmart & Walgreens |
| 7 | The Home Depot & Costco |
| 8 | Walmart & Dollar Tree |
| 9 | Walmart & Kroger |
| 10 | Walmart & Lowe's |
| 11 | Walmart & Sam’s Club |
| 12 | Walmart & Wells Fargo |
| 13 | Walmart & Starbucks |
| 14 | Walmart & Best Buy |
| 15 | Walmart & Shell |
| 16 | Walgreens & CVS |
| 17 | Walmart & Aldi |
| 18 | Walmart & Dunkin Donuts |
| 19 | Walmart & Taco Bell |
| 20 | Walmart & US Post Office |
The word network below visualizes these correlations between destinations. The larger the word indicates its overall popularity, while the thicker the line between destinations indicates frequency of co-occurrence.
State-by-state trends were also analyzed to show the strongest relationships between popular businesses for drivers. Below is a sample set of these regional findings, reflecting the top ten states that showed the strongest, most frequent relationships between businesses.
| Rank By State | Strongest driver relationships between businesses (most co-occurrences) |
| CALIFORNIA | |
| 1 | Costco & Walmart |
| 2 | Target & Costco |
| 3 | Walmart & In-N-Out |
| 4 | Walmart & Target |
| 5 | Walmart & McDonald’s |
| FLORIDA | |
| 1 | Walmart & The Home Depot |
| 2 | Walmart & US Post Office |
| 3 | Walmart & Lowe's |
| 4 | Walmart & Target |
| 5 | The Home Depot & Lowe’s |
| GEORGIA | |
| 1 | The Home Depot & Kroger |
| 2 | Walmart & McDonald’s |
| 3 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| 4 | Walmart & Starbucks |
| 5 | Walmart & Target |
| NEW JERSEY | |
| 1 | Walmart & The Home Depot |
| 2 | Costco & Best Buy |
| 3 | The Home Depot & Best Buy |
| 4 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| 5 | Walmart & Best Buy |
| NEW YORK | |
| 1 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| 2 | Walmart & Costco |
| 3 | McDonald’s & Dunkin Donuts |
| 4 | Walmart & The Home Depot |
| 5 | The Home Depot & Taco Bell |
| NORTH CAROLINA | |
| 1 | Walmart & Lowe's Home Improvement |
| 2 | Walmart & US Post Office |
| 3 | Walmart & Target |
| 4 | Target & Lowe's Home |
| 5 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| OHIO | |
| 1 | Walmart & Speedway |
| 2 | Walmart & Kroger |
| 3 | The Home Depot & Lowe's |
| 4 | Walmart & Sam’s Club |
| 5 | Walmart & McDonald’s |
| PENNSYLVANIA | |
| 1 | Walmart & Starbucks |
| 2 | Lowe's & Costco |
| 3 | US Post Office & Lowe's |
| 4 | Target & CVS |
| 5 | Burger King & Best Buy |
| TEXAS | |
| 1 | Walmart & McDonald’s |
| 2 | Walmart & Sam’s Club |
| 3 | Walmart & Target |
| 4 | Walmart & The Home Depot |
| 5 | Walgreens & CVS |
| WASHINGTON | |
| 1 | The Home Depot & Costco |
| 2 | Costco & Best Buy |
| 3 | Whole Foods Market & Costco |
| 4 | Walmart & Starbucks |
| 5 | Lowe's & 7-Eleven |