Mar-Cone Appliance Parts Center was founded in 1932 by Harry Markow as a door-to-door rebuilt vacuum cleaner company. CEO Mitchell Markow is the founder's grandson. Marcone Appliance Parts Center helps keep your refrigerator, dishwasher, and air conditioner running. Mar-Cone Appliance Parts Center distributes appliance repair parts; it also sells HVAC and plumbing supplies. Marcone operates through more than 40 locations in the US, mostly in California and Florida. Mar-Cone Appliance Parts Center provides parts from vendors such as KitchenAid, Whirlpool, and Maytag. It also exports parts to clients in about 120 countries around the globe. Marcone has been growing through acquisitions while consolidating business operations.

E-machitown is happy to lend its bank of servers and Web-hosting expertise to those who are willing to shell out a little Yen. The company, owned by Japan's largest reseller of mobile phones and formerly named Crayfish, provides Web-hosting services in Japan. As part of its business, e-machitown offers an e-mail service called DESKWIN, resells Internet advertising space, and develops custom software products. Since early 2009, e-machitown has been a 15% owner in a Tokyo joint venture named Alibaba Japan that sells products online. Telecommunications services provider Hikari Tsushin, which specializes in cell phone and Internet services and distribution among other things, owns 82% of e-machitown.

SOK is made up of about 35 independent regional cooperative societies that produce the group's services. Food and grocery account for half of SOK's overall business its market brands include ABC!, Alepa, Prisma, S Market, and Sale. The group was founded in 1904.Suomen Osuuskauppojen Keskuskunta (SOK Corporation) knows a thing or two (or 1,500) about retail. The Finnish group is active in grocery, combination convenience store/gas station, department store, specialty goods, hotel and restaurant, auto trade, and hardware services via 1,590 locations in its home country, throughout the Baltic nations, and Russia.

Ritz Interactive was founded by Chairman David Ritz and CEO Fred Lerner in 1999. It's separate from Ritz Camera Centers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Ritz Interactive is all over the Web. The company, a network of e-commerce Web sites, sells digital cameras and photographic products, as well as marine, boating, and fishing gear, through e-retailers, including RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com, and BoatersWorld.com. The company also owns and operates a handful of content-based community portals, such as Photography.com and BoatingOnly.com. Its Ritz Interactive Big Print Gallery allows users to upload digital images, view images posted by other community members, and rate photos or post commentary.

Founded as a single shop in 1966, Superdrug was sold to home improvement chain Kingfisher plc in 1987. Today, Superdrug and its sister chain, discounter Savers, are owned by A.S. Watson (ASW), the retail and manufacturing subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa. The fast-growing retail chain has been remodeling its existing stores, including converting more than 200 Savers stores to the Superdrug banner. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Superdrug Stores, the UK's #2 health and beauty retailer (behind Alliance Boots). Superdrug Stores Plc operates more than 910 stores -- each with fragrance offerings and about 215 with in-house pharmacies -- in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Old homes in the New World and new homes in the Old can find home-improvement supplies from this "mister." Mr. Bricolage is a retail chain (whose name means do-it-yourself in French) that sells home-improvement and related items at about 600 stores in France, Belgium, Argentina, Bulgaria, Madagascar, Spain, and Uruguay. Mr. Bricolage SA operates its business under the Bricolage and Catena brand names; the Tabur family owns more than 25% of Mr. Bricolage SA company.

Calloway’s Nursery is an independent Texas-based garden center founded by local nurserymen, Jim Estill, John Cosby, and John Peters. Calloway’s operates 17 stores in the Dallas and Fort Worth market and two stores in the Houston market. More than half of the company’s employees are Texas Certified Nursery Professionals.Calloway’s opened its first store in the spring of 1987 in Richardson, Texas and by the end of that spring had opened three more stores in the Dallas area. Calloway’s continued to grow rapidly expanding into the Fort Worth market and entering the Houston market through an acquisition. In 1999, Calloway’s acquired Houston-based Cornelius Nursery.

Gate Petroleum company runs a chain of about 225 Gate Food Post stores in six Southeastern states, including Florida and the Carolinas, that sell gas and groceries and offer fleet management services. The firm is also a wholesale fuel distributor to customers throughout the Southeast. The company is also active in the real estate and construction materials businesses. In Florida Gate owns several private clubs, office buildings, and business parks. Subsidiary Gate Concrete has plants in about half a dozen states that make and sell concrete and building materials. CEO Herbert Peyton, who founded the company in 1960, owns the majority of Gate Petroleum.

In November 1984 Fortnum's made the national news when staff requested they sell the the "Do They Know It's Christmas?" single in Piccadilly. As no-one is in any doubt when it's Christmas at Fortnum's, the company took up the idea with gusto - helping spread the charitable message far beyond its traditional audience.

LAWSON aims to be the "hot station" in the neighborhood for on-the-go Japanese. Japan's #2 convenience store chain (behind Seven-Eleven Japan), LAWSON operates more than 9,800 outlets throughout Japan and in Shanghai, China. Its stores offer original products including main dishes, prepared noodles, bakery and deli items, and rice balls. (Food and groceries account for about 85% of sales.) Subsidiary Lawson Ticket sells concert, sports, and other events tickets in LAWSON and Daiei stores. Lawson ATM dispenses cash to shoppers in about 6,000 LAWSON shops. Subsidiary Ninety-nine Plus sells perishable foods. Founded in 1975 as Daiei Lawson Co., the chain was spun off by financially troubled Daiei in 2000.

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.