With last week’s Q2 earnings release, Target exploded analyst’s expectations and reminded its fellow retailers that reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. “Unprecedented” is the word most associated with its results. The company reported same-store sales growth of 4.9% (see below) and digital comp growth of 41%. In-store and digital sales combined to produce overall comparable sales growth of 6.5%, the company’s best comp sales gain in 13 years.

Walmart Inc. had its moment to shine a few weeks prior when it announced comp sales gains of 4.5% at Walmart, its highest in 10 years, and 5.0% at Sam’s Club, that unit’s strongest growth in 6 years.  Throw in e-commerce sales up 40%, thanks to big gains in grocery, and it’s not a bad three months’ worth of work for the house that Sam built.

This week, we can expect results from Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Big Lots while Costco, also killing it when last we heard from the company, won’t report a new set of earnings until Q4 and Fiscal 2018 are released on October 4.

It will be interesting to see if the super-strong performance of Target, Walmart and Costco this summer spells trouble for their bargain-priced competition. We’ll pass along an update once the results are in.