Winmark Corporation, a resale company, operates as a franchisor in the United States and Canada. It is involved in the operation of Plato's Closet, which franchisees buy and sell gently used clothing and accessories for the teenage and young adult market; Once Upon A Child, which franchisees buy and sell gently used and, to a lesser extent, new children's clothing, …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Consistently Above PeersGross margin at 96.4% (top 0%) and operating margin at 63.4% (top 0%) indicate strong pricing power.
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.82), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 74
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 93
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 76
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 76
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 84
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Winmark Corporation (WINA) scores 83 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as strong. It ranks #1 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail, the top 2%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (93/100) and its weakest is Cost Advantage (74/100).
How does Winmark Corporation compare with other Specialty Retail companies?
Winmark Corporation ranks #1 of 52 scored companies in Specialty Retail by moat score. That is the widest moat in Specialty Retail. The companies ranked closest are Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) at 82 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 51 companies in Specialty Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Winmark Corporation scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Winmark Corporation?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and WINA scores: Pricing Power (93), Cost Advantage (74), Customer Stickiness (93), Capital Efficiency (76), Resilience (76), Scale & Market Position (84). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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