Shoe Carnival, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a footwear retailer. Its stores offer dress and casual shoes, sandals, and boots, as well as a range of athletic shoes, such as running, basketball, and fitness shoes for men, women, children, and athletics. The company also provides accessory items, including handbags, shoe care items, and socks. It owns various registered trademarks and servicemarks, consisting of Shoe Carnival, The Carnival, Donna Lawrence, Oak Meadow, Victoria Spenser, Via Nova, Innocence, Carnival Lites, Y-NOT, UNR8ED, Solanz, and 93 Octane. As of January 30, 2010, the company operated 311 stores in 30 states primarily in the midwest, south, and southeast regions of the United States. Shoe Carnival, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Evansville, Indiana.

Restoration Hardware sells upscale home furnishings, hardware, bathware, garden products, and decorative items through more than 100 retail and outlet stores in 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. It also markets products through its catalogs and e-commerce sites. Restoration Hardware's assortment of home and office furniture is supplemented in part by its subsidiary The Michaels Furniture Company. Founded in 1980 by former chairman Stephen Gordon, Restoration Hardware was acquired for $175 million by private equity firms Catterton Partners and Tower Three Partners in 2008.

L.L. Bean was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean and is controlled by his descendants. With L.L. Bean, you can tame the great outdoors -- or just look as if you could. The outdoor apparel and gear maker mails more than 200 million catalogs per year. L.L. Bean's library includes about 10 specialty catalogs offering products in categories such as children's clothing, fly-fishing, outerwear, sportswear, housewares, footwear, camping and hiking gear, and the Maine hunting shoe upon which L.L. Bean, Inc. was built. L.L. Bean also operates about 15 retail stores and an equal number of outlets throughout the Northeast, Illinois, and China. In addition, it sells online through English- and Japanese-language websites.

Hoopers is running circles around its competition. Founded in 1982, the company is a retail store operator with five UK-based department stores nationwide (Harrogate, Torquay, Tunbridge Wells, Wilmslow, Carlisle), as well as three menswear stores. The company specializes in designer and branded fashion. Its departments include womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, cosmetics, gifts, cookware and glassware, and furniture and linens. Hoopers is a partial owner of department store chain Beale through its Lawdene investing subsidiary. The company is owned by father and son team David and Richard Thompson.

Habitat UK Limited offers furniture, kitchenware, textiles, and decorative accessories from more than 30 countries. It vends its wares through some 70 stores in the UK, France, Germany, and Spain, as well as online and via catalog. In addition to these outlets, Habitat has retail distribution partners in about 15 other countries in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region. The company also sells ready-to-hang artwork through its Art on Demand Web site. Habitat was founded in 1964 by British designer Sir Terence Conran. Former owner The Ikano Group, a holding company owned by IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad and his family, sold the chain to an affiliate of Hilco in December 2009.

The only soft rock you'll find at Southwest Boulder & Stone is on the radio. Southwest Boulder & Stone Inc. provides natural stone, manufactured stone, and masonry products to the building trade in Southern California. Its products include boulders (real and manufactured), stones, bricks, pebbles, and assorted other sized rocks. Paving stones, crushed sand, and decomposed granite are available for paths between the boulders. Southwest Boulder & Stone Inc. also supplies a range of big equipment for transporting and placing large rocks and offers landscaping seminars. Operating from three locations in California, Southwest Boulder & Stone was founded in 1989.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co., through its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty retailer of casual apparel for men, women, and kids. The company sells casual sportswear apparel, including knit and woven shirts, graphic t-shirts, fleece, jeans and woven pants, shorts, sweaters, outerwear, personal care products, and accessories under the Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, and Hollister brands. It also offers bras, underwear, sleepwear, and at-home products for women under the Gilly Hicks brand. The company sells products through its stores; direct-to-consumer operations; and Websites, which include abercrombie.com, abercrombiekids.com, hollisterco.com, and gillyhicks.com. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 1,096 stores in North America, Europe, and Asia. Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in New Albany, Ohio.

Metro as a brand was founded in 1957 by its chairman, Mr Ong Tjoe Kim.Retail business under the stewardship of the late Mr Ong flourished and grew to become one of Singapore’s major department store chains. Metro Holdings Limited was formed in 1973 and listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore that same year. Metro continued to grow its retail business over the years and later diversified into property development, leisure, construction sectors.

Founded in 1939, RONA generates about 40% of its sales from distribution. RONA has employed an aggressive acquisition strategy to expand throughout Canada. RONA believes a tool belt befits both genders. The company is Canada's top home improvement retailer (ahead of Home Depot of Canada) with about 685 franchised, affiliated, and corporate stores. Looking beyond traditional male customers, RONA stores court women shoppers (more than half of its customers) with features such as decorator boutiques and product displays set for the average woman's eye level. The stores range in format from small RONA L'express shops to RONA L'entrepot big-box outlets and the retailer carries some 2,000 RONA-branded products.

Retailing giant Daimaru Matsuzakaya opened for business Monday, bringing to fruition the 2007 mega-merger between department store chains Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Bargain hunt: Shoppers flock for bargains at the Matsuzakaya department store in Tokyo's Ueno district Monday as the merged Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. began operations. KYODO PHOTOThe new chain, which combined under holding firm J. Front Retailing Co., will take over strategic planning and product procurement duties from J. Front to save costs amid the current deflation.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.