10 Top Consumer Staples Stocks Of February 2024 (2024)

Walmart is the world’s largest retailer, the world’s largest company by revenue and the largest employer, with over 2.2 million employees as of 2020. Worldwide, Walmart gets more than 260 million customer visits each year. For those who prefer to avoid crowds, there’s the members-only Sam’s Club and Walmart+ subscription delivery options as well.

WMT was founded in Bentonville, Ark., by Sam Walton, who was a pioneer in value retail. While the company is still headquartered in Arkansas, it now operates everywhere in the U.S. and in 24 countries.

Procter & Gamble is a consumer goods company that makes everything from personal hygiene products to detergents, cleaners and other household products. The company used to make snacks and beverages under the Pringles brand, before selling that division to Kellogg.

PG is one of the biggest employers in Cincinnati, Ohio, where it has its headquarters. With an annual marketing budget of $11.5 billion, it also holds the title of the world’s largest advertiser.

A multinational, member-only big box chain, Costco is the fifth largest retailer in the world, according to the National Retail Foundation. The company operates 800 stores worldwide, though stores exist in fewer than 20 countries and almost 70% of its stores are located in the U.S. Costco employs more than 270,000 people across the globe.

Nestle is a Swiss multinational known for—you guessed it—chocolate. The company started as a condensed milk company, and milk chocolate was one of its first products. Today, the firm has expanded to produce a gigantic range of different foods and beverages.

Nestle operates in nearly 200 countries, employs over 330,000 people and operates over 400 factories. The company is also one of the biggest shareholders of L’Oreal, another company on our list.

L’Oreal is a French company that manufactures a range of personal care products, including cosmetics. The company started in 1909 when a chemist invented a hair dye and has since grown into the world’s largest cosmetics company.

Among its many programs, L’Oreal has also partnered with UNESCO to create the Women in Science Award to promote the involvement of women in the sciences.

Soft drink supergiant Coca-Cola traces its history back to Georgia in the 1880s. When Atlanta and Fulton County outlawed alcohol, pharmacist John Pemberton invented Coca-Cola as a non-alcoholic version of Pemberton’s French Wine Coca. The drink was intended for use as a patent medicine.

Since then, KO has grown into a behemoth in the beverage industry and has spurred massive growth in the Atlanta region by investing incredible sums back into the community. Among other achievements, the company pioneered vertical integration by buying out its early bottlers, minting a number of millionaires in the process.

Another soft drink giant from the south, PepsiCo started in the 1890s in North Carolina. The company went broke during World War I as a result of sugar rationing, but it was later purchased—along with its famous cola recipe—by a holding company.

PEP has owned a number of other brands, many of which it sold off in the 1990s, such as restaurant chains Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, plus the U.S. rights to Russian distiller Stolichnaya. Today, it still owns several snack and beverage brands, including Gatorade, Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Mountain Dew and Quaker Foods.

Philip Morris manufactures cigarettes and other tobacco products and is considered the largest member of “Big Tobacco.” Philip Morris is perhaps best known as the owner of the Marlboro brand of cigarettes, but it also owns many other brands, selling products in 175 countries around the world.

Until 2008, Philip Morris was part of Altria. Since being spun off, Philip Morris has grown its market cap to be higher than Altria’s, making it one of the biggest sin stocks in the world.

Unilever is a consumer goods multinational headquartered in London. The company is the largest producer of soap in the world, but it also makes countless other goods, including Lipton teas and Ben & Jerry’s ice creams. Unilever stands out for its poor environmental record, though it has recently announced plans to drastically reduce its footprint before the end of the decade.

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, commonly called AB InBev, is a Belgian multinational consumer staples company based in Belgium. This global giant maintains regional headquarters in New York City, São Paulo, London, Mexico City, Bremen and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The company is among the largest beer brewers on the planet, with a roster of flagship brands that will be quite familiar to many readers: Budweiser, Corona, Stella Artois, Beck’s, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Antarctica, Bud Light, Brahma, Michelob Ultra and Modelo.

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