Do Target and Walmart count as groceries?
Almost never. Target and Walmart ring up as superstores, and Costco and Sam's Club as warehouse clubs, and of the 18 cards here that pay a year-round grocery bonus, one pays it at either. The groceries in your cart do not change how the store is coded.
The short version
- Don't use your grocery card at Target, Walmart or a warehouse club expecting the grocery rate — it almost never applies.
- Use your best everyday card there instead, unless a store card pays more at that one store.
- Watch for a rotating quarter that includes them, and activate it when it does.
- At a warehouse club, check which networks it takes before you choose.
Superstores
No card in the catalogue pays a year-round bonus here. Chase Freedom Flex and Discover it Cash Back include it in a rotating or chosen category, which pays only in a quarter it is picked. With nothing switched on, the best card to use is American Express Blue Business Plus, at $4.00 per $100. The full ranking.
Wholesale Clubs
One card pays a year-round bonus here: Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards. Chase Freedom Flex and Discover it Cash Back include it in a rotating or chosen category, which pays only in a quarter it is picked. With nothing switched on, the best card to use is American Express Blue Business Plus, at $4.00 per $100. The full ranking.
Store cards, which pay at one store
- Citi Costco Anywhere Visa — 2% at its own store. Costco warehouse and Costco.com
- Target Circle Card — 5% at its own store. Taken off at the register as a discount rather than earned as rewards
Particular stores
Related
Point values: published industry valuations, most recently read 2026-09. We track The Points Guy, Upgraded Points, NerdWallet, Frequent Miler and AwardWallet. Every figure on this page is recomputed from that data when the site is built, so it cannot quietly disagree with what Cardful tells you at a checkout.
It knows how the store is coded.
Cardful ranks your cards by the category a store actually rings up as, not by what you are buying there.