Auchan's mammoth markets make room for more than meals. France's second-largest food retailer (behind Carrefour), Auchan operates some 740 supermarkets and about 515 hypermarkets (French for supercenters) in about a dozen countries. France represents 47% of Auchan's sales, but the firm has stores throughout Europe and in China, Dubai, Russia, and Taiwan. (Auchan exited the US, Mexico, and Morocco in recent years.) Its hypermarkets carry up to 100,000 products, including groceries, apparel, consumer electronics, and fast food. They also provide travel services. Auchan's other core businesses include banking (Banque Accord), and shopping mall development (Immochan). The founding Mulliez family controls Auchan.

GNC is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Board Plan, its affiliate Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, and management. GNC filed to go public in September 2010.What's good for the customer is good for GNC Acquisition Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Centers). GNC operates the world's leading nutritional-supplements retail chain devoted solely to items such as vitamins and dietary products. The company also makes Rite Aid private-label products. It sells its products online, as well, through a partnership with drugstore.com. GNC has 2,800 company-owned retail stores in the US and Canada; 1,900 store-within-a-store sites in Rite Aid's drugstores; and 2,220 franchised stores in 47 countries.

Here's a company that's traveled a fur piece from its 17th- century roots. Founded in 1670 as a fur trading enterprise, Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) is Canada's largest department store chain and oldest corporation. Its Zellers chain is the country's #2 discount department store (behind Wal-Mart Canada), with some 280 stores. HBC also runs about 90 the Bay department stores that focus on more upscale merchandise, 190-plus Fields general merchandise and apparel stores in Western Canada, more than 65 Home Outfitters superstores, and Hbc.com. The company also has its own credit card and financial services companies. HBC is owned by NRDC Equity Partners, which is looking to take the company public as early as 2011.

Norkus Enterprises was founded when Francis Norkus opened his first grocery store, called Table Talk, in Freehold, New Jersey in 1935. Today Norkus' three sons, Gerry (president), Mark (VP), and Stephen (VP), run the firm, which is a member of the Foodtown Supermarket cooperative.They sell pasta shells by the Jersey sea shore. Norkus Enterprises operates about half a dozen grocery stores under the Foodtown and Super Foodtown banners in Monmouth County and Ocean County, New Jersey. The regional grocery chain also offers online shopping and home delivery in some areas

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.

Founded in 1960, Pacific Sales became a subsidiary of retail giant Best Buy in 2006. Pacific Sales fills its sails with Pacific breezes and kitchen appliances. Its Kitchen and Bath Centers offer high-end kitchen appliances, plumbing fixtures, and home entertainment systems through about 35 stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Brands include ASKO, Electrolux, Kohler, Sony, TOTO, Viking, and Yamaha. The company's showroom stores are open to the public as well as to builders, contractors, and designers, and they feature a special department for multi-unit projects. Pacific Sales also offers installation and repair services.

Medical Pharmacies Group operates about 25 pharmacies in medical buildings throughout Ontario. It is the province's leading provider of pharmacy services to long term care facilities, including nursing and retirement homes. Pharmacies do not include the usual sundries, just medicaments and medical supplies; customers are therefore clinic-oriented. Medical Pharmacies Group Inc. was the first in Canada to utilize an automated prescription refilling system. Erast Huculak, a pharmacist and the company's president, founded Medical Pharmacies Group in 1957. The firm is still owned and operated by pharmacists.

Richer Sounds stands behind its name. Founded by then-19-year-old Julian Richer, Richer Sounds PLC today is Britain's biggest hi-fi and electronics retailer, selling audio and video electronics gear from more than 40 stores throughout the UK. Stores sell such products as CD and DVD players, home theater systems, plasma and LCD TVs, speakers, turntables, amplifiers, and more. It also sells its wares from its retail company web site (Mr. Richer guarantees that prices in the two media will always match.) Richer Sounds PLC is owned by chairman Julian Richer, who opened his first store at London Bridge in 1978.

Victoria's Secret is not hush-hush, but it is unmentionable(s). The largest subsidiary of Limited Brands (based on sales) is also North America's #1 specialty retailer of women's intimate apparel, operating about 1,040 mostly mall-based Victoria's Secret and 250-plus La Senza lingerie stores throughout the US and Canada. Bras, panties, hosiery, swimwear, shoes, and more are sold under the Victoria's Secret brand and grouped in collections such as Dream Angels and Very Sexy. Many Victoria's Secret lingerie stores also sell beauty products. Its sister company Victoria's Secret Direct mails about 400 million of its sexy catalogs per year, offering intimate apparel, women's clothing, and footwear.

Southern Co-operatives originally dipped its toe into the co-operative market in 1873. The regional consumer co- operative society operates about 120 convenience stores under The Co-op banner in mid-southern England. The co-op added the David's chain of convenience stores on the Isle of Wight during the past few years. Its other lines of business include funeral services and property investment. The co-op exited the milk delivery business -- Southern Co-operative Dairies by selling it to the Co-operative Group (CWS). Established as the Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society by dockyard workers in Portsmouth, the group changed its name to Southern Co-operatives Limited in 1998.

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