Some people may not like to eat Atomic Spears, but these guys think it is all A Matter of Taste. The company sells specialty food products, such as Atomic Spears (pickles) and Atomic Shrooms (mushrooms), Glow Babies (pickled carrots), P.B. Loco (flavored peanut butter), and cheddar beer soup. A Matter of Taste also peddles quilts and assorted commemorative figurines. While A Matter of Taste Inc. sells its products from its Web site, it also operates a single retail store in Washington.

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.

Grupo Salinas is the group of companies owned by Ricardo B. Salinas, one of Mexico's wealthiest citizens. While not a holding company, Grupo Salinas has interests in financial services, media, retail, and telecommunications -- a few of which are listed on Mexico's stock exchange. It has controlling interests in the nation's #2 network, TV Azteca, cellular service provider Iusacell, and electronics retaler Grupo Elektra. Motorcycle manufacturer Italika launched production in 2005 and is Mexico's top seller, producing 300,000 bikes per year. Grupo Elektra's financial service firms, Banco Azteca, Seguros Azteca, and Afore Azteca, serve low-income families in Mexico, Brazil, and Peru.

The Peacock Group has only just begun to display its full colorful strut, even though it's been fluttering around for more than a century. Founded in 1884 as Peacock's Penny Bazaar, the value-priced fashion retailer operates two chains: Peacock's, with 460 UK stores and about 45 franchised locations in Turkey, the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia, sells women's and men's apparel and accessories; and about 380 Bonmarche shops that offer women's apparel in sizes 12 to 24. Peacock Group supplies its own stores, as well as several other chains, with branded women's, men's, and children's apparel and footwear. The company was taken private in 2006 in a deal backed by Goldman Sachs, Perry Capital, and Och Ziff.

In France the company operates Pro à Pro Distribution, which supplies foodservice operations, and the Coccinelle and Colruyt retail chains.Colruyt and its subsidiaries carry names that are well-known in Belgium and France. The company retails or distributes a wide variety of consumer home and office products, groceries, and computer equipment and services. In Belgium, Colruyt operates some 240 discount supermarkets under the Colruyt and OKay banners, as well as more than 2,300 BIO-planet organic food stores. It also supplies independently-owned SPAR supermarkets with food. The retail group also operates the DreamLand chain of toy and baby product stores, as well as convenience retail stores and gas stations.

Pathmark's rival in the Northeast, acquired the chain for about $1.4 billion in late 2007. Three years later, A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Pathmark rings up about 45% of A&P's annual sales.Pathmark Stores hopes it's finally on the upward path now that it has become part of the A&P family of grocery chains. Pathmark operates about 140 supermarkets, under the Pathmark and Pathmark Sav-A-Center banners, in densely populated areas in four states: Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Many of its stores are Pathmark Super Centers, which offer an expanded selection of general merchandise and foods, nearly all have pharmacies, and more than half have in-store banks

Founded in 1973, A & E Stores also owns Rugby Realty, a real estate investment firm. Working women who have never heard of A & E Stores are more likely to be familiar with its Strawberry and Bolton's retail apparel chains. The company operates about 30 Bolton's and 25 Strawberry stores that sell junior and women's career and casual apparel, shoes, and accessories. The stores are concentrated in prime office districts in Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City. A & E's third chain, Pay/Half, operates some 45 discount family clothing stores in about a half dozen northeastern states and the Chicago area.

Stein Mart, Inc. operates retail stores that offer fashion merchandise for men and women in the United States. Stein Mart company’s stores provide fashion apparel, accessories, gifts, linens, and shoes. As of January 30, 2010, it operated a chain of 267 retail stores in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Stein Mart, Inc. was founded in 1908 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

E-Z Mart Stores founder Jim Yates kept his first convenience store in Ashdown, Arkansas, open until 11. The company now boasts 300 outlets across five southern states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). Rather than build its own stores, the company usually expands through acquisitions. In addition to the standard hot dogs, chips, sodas, and cigarettes, most E-Z Mart locations also offer Shell, Conoco, Phillips 66, or CITGO gasoline. Yates died in late 1998 when the plane he was piloting crashed, leaving his daughter Sonja Hubbard at the company's helm as CEO.

Business at Roofing Wholesale doesn't have to be complicated, but it should be over your head. Roofing Wholesale Company (RWC) distributes residential and commercial roofing, stone flooring, and stucco to contractors, builders, and do-it-yourself home owners through ten locations in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico. It also operates an online store. Products include asphalt shingles, cedar shakes and shingles, clay tiles, fasteners, marble floors, and slate roofs. John Lisherness, father of current president Harley Lisherness, founded the family-owned company in 1958.

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