O'Connell Oil operates about 30 Convenience Plus convenience stores and a half a dozen gas stations throughout western Massachusetts, serving customers with Citgo, Mobil, and Shell brand gasoline. Three O'Connell's Heating Oil & Service locations provide heating oil and air conditioner repair services. The company also runs plumbing and industrial lubricant divisions. Namesake Ralph M. O'Connell founded the company in 1925.

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.

Home Retail Group plc engages in home and general merchandise retailing activities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It offers housewares, furniture, home improvement products, domestic appliances, consumer electronics, toys, jewellery, sports and leisure equipment, and horticulture, garden furniture, and outdoor living products. The company operates 1,094 stores comprising 745 stores under the Argos name and 349 stores under the Homebase name. It also provides various credit services to customers. The company provides its products through Internet, phone orders, and catalogues. It was formerly known as ARG Holdings (UK) plc and changed its name to Home Retail Group plc in September 2006. Home Retail Group plc is based in Milton Keynes, the United Kingdom.

Dunnes Stores has been losing market share to foreign competitors in recent years and is under increasing pressure to cut prices as the Irish economy swoons. Frank Dunne, son of the late founder Ben Dunne, runs the company.The Irish aren't done shopping until they've shopped Dunnes Stores. The largest Irish-owned supermarket and the Second supermarket operator there (behind Tesco), Dunnes Stores offers brand-name and its own St. Bernard-brand grocery items; housewares for every room; and clothing for men, women, and children in about 150 stores in Ireland, the UK, and Spain. Ireland's largest family-owned business.

In Germany a trip to the corner drugstore is often a trip to Anton Schlecker. Fa. Anton Schlecker company is Germany's largest drugstore operator with about 10,650 discount retail outlets there. It also operates another 3,300 stores in about a dozen countries in Europe, including Austria, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Schlecker stores stock more than 4,000 product lines, including branded and private-label items. The shops also feature over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, baby products, tobacco, photo services, and more. It is owned by German billionaire Anton Schlecker, who opened his first drugstore in 1975.

JLP has several manufacturing subsidiaries that make wooden furniture, and bedding; its 4,000-acre Leckford Estate in Hampshire grows apples, pears, mushrooms, and produces milk, poultry, and eggs for sale in Waitrose supermarkets. JLP has an online shopping service, John Lewis Direct, and its employee pension plan owns about 24% of Internet grocer Ocado, which delivers Waitrose products.What began as a London drapery shop is today one of the UK's largest retailers -- and arguably its most oddly organized. John Lewis Partnership (JLP) runs about 30 John Lewis department stores and some 235 Waitrose supermarkets, primarily in London and southern England, but also in Scotland and Wales.

Lands' End has surrounded a number of sales channels. The firm markets casual apparel for men, women, and children through its flagship and specialty catalogs, website, and Sears department stores. It also has more than 290 in-store Lands' End Shops at Sears locations and operates more than a dozen free-standing retail stores in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan. Lands' End also offers home goods, luggage, school uniforms, and logoed business apparel and products. Lands' End with the misplaced apostrophe in its name has been expanding its online presence, but catalogs continue to be its primary sales channel. Lands' End is a subsidiary of Sears, Roebuck, which is itself owned by Sears Holdings.

Since 1963 Fast Retailing has been working to fill the gap in Japan's casual wear market. The company operates about 815 Uniqlo (a combination of the words unique and clothing) stores in Japan and another 145 Uniqlo shops in foreign markets, including China, France, South Korea, the UK and the US. The first Uniqlo store opened New York City in 2005. Fast Retailing -- often described as the "Gap of Japan" -- sells "cheap chic" basics (similar to US-based Old Navy or Spain's Zara, but undercutting its competitors more drastically) for men, women, and children. It buys most of its clothes from 60 factories in China. Founder and chairman Tadashi Yanai and his family own nearly half of Fast Retailing.

Nordstrom, Inc., a fashion specialty retailer, offers apparel, shoes, cosmetics, and accessories for women, men, and children in the United States. Nordstrom company offers a selection of brand name and private label merchandise. It sells its products through various channels, including ‘Nordstrom’ full-line stores, ‘Nordstrom Rack’ off-price stores, ‘Last Chance’ clearance stores, and ‘Jeffrey’ boutiques; and through catalog and the Internet. Nordstrom, Inc. also provides a private label card, two Nordstrom VISA credit cards, and a debit card for Nordstrom purchases. Its credit and debit cards feature a shopping-based loyalty program. Nordstrom company also designs and contracts to manufacture private label merchandise sold in its retail stores. As of March 19, 2010, it had 187 retail stores located in 28 states. Nordstrom, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Seattle, Washington.

Founded in 1907 by Fred Palmer and George Donavin, the company got its start making sheet metal and tinware. Skylights and windows from PALMER -DONAVIN MANUFACTURING help residents of the Hoosier and Buckeye states see a little better. The company operates four divisions -- building materials; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); kitchen and bathroom cabinets; and wood and laminate flooring -- through about 10 locations in Ohio and Indiana. Building materials include doors and windows, roofing, siding, insulation, gutters, fences, and decks. PALMER -DONAVIN carries such HVAC brands as Rheem and Armstrong Air, as well as cabinets from Wilsonart, Cardell, and Hartson-Kennedy.

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