At first blush, retailers (NYSE: WMT) and Dollar General (NYSE: DG) look enough alike. Walmart stores are far bigger, but there are fewer of them. There are far more Dollar General stores, but they're much smaller. Both companies sell the same basic consumer goods, though, even if Walmart offers more bigger-ticket items.

And yet, the two discounters are performing very differently. Dollar General's same-store sales (comps) slumped 0.1% year over year during the three-month stretch ending in early August, leaving the top line short of the $9.93 billion analysts were expecting.

Walmart's recently ended fourth quarter, conversely, topped revenue estimates of $160.3 billion and earnings of $1.71 per share with sales of $161.6 billion and a profit of $1.84 per share. Overall sales improved 5.7% year over year, leading to comps growth of 6.4% within the United States.

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Source Fool.com