Walmart Inc. (WMT)

The base is US supercentres, where groceries account for a large share of turnover. That makes revenue resilient in downturns: people buy food in any year, and in hard times shoppers trade down into these stores from pricier chains. Margins are thin, and profit is set by inventory turns and logistics costs.

The second layer is e-commerce: delivery from the store, kerbside pickup, the Walmart+ subscription. Thousands of locations close to the customer function as a warehouse network — an advantage pure online players lack. The third and highest-margin layer is advertising on its own marketplace plus services sold to suppliers; both grow faster than retail and lift overall profitability.

The international arm is chiefly Mexico, Canada and a stake in India's Flipkart. The main risks are consumer spending, labour costs and import tariffs, since a meaningful part of the general-merchandise assortment is imported. The company has raised its dividend for many consecutive years.