Lowe's Food Stores operates a chain of about 110 supermarkets in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The stores offer traditional supermarket fare, including fresh meat, seafood, deli, and bakery departments, in addition to natural foods and supplements. The company's Lowes Foods to Go program lets customers shop online and either pick up their groceries at their local Lowe's Food store or have them delivered. It also operates more than half a dozen fuel stations in the Carolinas. The regional chain is upgrading selected stores and customer service as Wal-Mart Supercenters expands in its market. Founded in 1954, Lowe's Food Stores is owned by food distributor Alex Lee.

Redcats has some red hot deals. It 90+ catalogs and websites offer apparel (including men's and women's plus-size clothing), home furnishings, outdoor gear, sporting goods, and fashion accessories. Major brands include Avenue, Brylane, Roaman's, The Sportsman's Guide, La Redoute, and Ellos. With a presence in more than 30 countries, Redcats has about 600 stores in France, its largest market (the US is second). Redcats USA oversees its US business; it also has major operations in Scandinavia. Nearly all the company's products are designed in-house, not surprising considering its parent is PPR, owner of fashion houses Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Redcats in 2010 purchased plus-size fashion website Castaluna.com.

Grossman's Bargain Outlet is owned by Arkansas-based E.C. Barton, which also operates discount building products chain Surplus Warehouse. Grossman's Bargain Outlet caters to thrifty do-it-yourself and professional customers seeking an alternative to traditional home improvement centers. The company carries closeout and overstocked building supplies, including lumber, doors, windows, cabinets, flooring, fixtures, paint, and insulation. It operates about 50 no-frills Grossman's Bargain Outlet stores in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island. To encourage big-ticket shopping trips, Grossman's Bargain Outlet offers discounts on volume purchases and issues loyalty rewards to its Frequent Saver Club credit card holders.

Walter Alexander, the company's president, is a grandson of the founder, John Alexander, who ran Alexander Lumber until his death in 1944. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Alexander Lumber can tell you about 100 years of selling wood. More than a century, in fact. The family-owned company was established in 1891. Alexander Lumber conducts wholesale and retail sales of tree products from about 25 retail lumberyards in Illinois and Wisconsin. Alexander Lumber's manufacturing division, Cortland Components, designs and builds wooden trusses and joists for construction at a plant in Cortland, Illinois.

WinWholesale Inc. is a leading supplier of domestic and industrial supplies and materials headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. The privately-held company consists of more than 450 wholesaling corporations in which WinWholesale is an equity partner, and also Noland Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Noland is a wholesaler with more than 70 locations mainly in the Southeast. Collectively, WinWholesale is referred to as “The Win Group of Companies". In the group are companies conducting business-to-business wholesale distribution of plumbing and heating supplies; industrial pipes, valves and fittings; heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment; electrical equipment; industrial and commercial fastening hardware; waterworks and utility supplies; and domestic, commercial and industrial pumps.

Cash Converters International makes cash advances in return for used merchandise, including electronics, jewelry, musical instruments, tools, and more, which it resells to the public. The second-hand goods retailer and pawnbroker operates about 500 franchised and company-owned stores in its home country of Australia and another 20 countries worldwide, including Canada, the US, and the UK. The company also offers customers cash advances on their paychecks. Stores operate under the Cash Converters banner. Texas-based EZCORP acquired a 30% stake in the firm in 2009.

AUTOBACS STRAUSS INC. was created in 1982 through the acquisition of Strauss, a New York City auto-parts chain founded in 1919, by R&S Auto. It spent two years under the ownership of Japan's AUTOBACS SEVEN CO. before being sold back to its former owner Glenn Langberg in 2009. If your car conks out in the city that never sleeps you might seek out AUTOBACS STRAUSS (formerly Strauss Discount Auto) for a wake-up call. The auto parts and service chain has about 75 locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The stores sell accessories and car-care products, as well as hard parts such as batteries, mufflers, radiators, and spark plugs, tires, and tools. Many locations also offer repair services.

Founded by the husband-and-wife team Tom and Gun Denhart in 1983, it sells its premium apparel -- as well as backpacks, baby toys and gifts -- online, by catalog, and more than 25 retail and outlet stores throughout the US. Unhappy with the cotton apparel available after their son's birth, the Denharts started their own mail-order business and named it after Gun's grandmother: Hanna Andersson. The apparel company is owned by Sun Capital Partners (SCP). Hanna Andersson brings a whole new meaning to the concept of having your own MiniMe. The Swedish-inspired firm makes and sells colorful 100% cotton and organic cotton clothing and sleepwear for the whole family, specializing in mother-daughter ensembles.

Drugs are merely part of the story at Discount Drug Mart. One of the largest drugstore chains in Ohio, Discount Drug Mart, Inc. offers pharmacy services, medical and home health care supplies, and over-the-counter medications, as well as groceries (including fresh produce), beauty aids, pet supplies, housewares, and hardware. It also provides video rentals and photo developing service. Discount Drug Mart's nearly 70 stores are 25,000 sq. ft. on average, about twice the size of its rivals' locations, but smaller and more convenient than its national big-box competitors, such as Wal-Mart and Target. Chairman and CEO Parviz Boodjeh owns Discount Drug Mart, Inc., which he founded in 1969.

Guyenne et Gascogne and Carrefour jointly own Sogara, which operates about a dozen Carrefour hypermarkets in southwest France. In addition, Sogara owns about 8% of Centros Comerciales Carrefour (Carrefour's Spanish subsidiary), which operates some 165 Carrefour hypermarkets and 100-plus Carrefour Express supermarkets and Carrefour City stores. The Beau family owns about a fifth of Guyenne et Gascogne.Guyenne et Gascogne cares for Carrefour. Established in 1913, Guyenne et Gascogne is a leading franchise operator for French-based supermarket giant Carrefour. Guyenne et Gascogne (named after two ancient French provinces) runs 30-plus Carrefour hypermarkets and Champion supermarkets in southwestern France.

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