TBC Corporation is the nation's largest vertically integrated marketer of tires for the automotive replacement market. The Company's retail operations include Company-operated tire and automotive service centers under the " Tire Kingdom", "Merchant's Tire & Auto Centers", and "National Tire & Battery" brands, and franchised stores under the "Big O Tires" brand. TBC markets on a wholesale basis to regional tire chains and distributors serving independent tire dealers throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Through its Carroll Tire wholesale distribution centers, the Company also markets directly to independent tire dealers across the United States. Carroll Tire Company sells a wide variety of proprietary and national brands from 38 distribution centers.TBC markets and sells nine proprietary brands of tires through North America. The Multi-Mile, Cordovan, Sigma, Vanderbilt, Sumitomo, Eldorado, Laramie, Telstar, and Jetzon brands are produced by nationally recognized manufacturers and have a reputation for quality, safety, and value. These brands are distributed through TBC Private Brands and Treadways to independent retailers and wholesalers throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2005, TBC Corporation was purchased by Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA). SCOA is the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation (SC), one of Japan's major integrated trading and investment business enterprises. TBC Corporation still functions as an independent company of SCOA providing the same services and products it has for many years, but has ended its 22-year stint as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.

There might be a trip to Best Buy for some CDs or a television in your future. Best Buy Canada operates about 210 consumer electronics superstores under the three brands: Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, and Future Shop. The retail outlets offer televisions, computers, and DVD players, as well as cameras, CDs, DVDs, mobile phones, and software. In addition the Future Shop stores, which average 26,700 square feet and are smaller than Best Buy Canada locations, offer home appliances, office supplies, and maintenance services. Best Buy Canada also offers customers in-home and commercial technical support through its Geek Squad services unit. US-based retail giant Best Buy acquired the Future Shop chain in 2002.

Balducci's has the right ingredients to attract hungry gourmands.The chain operates half a dozen upscale specialty food stores under the Balducci's name in Connecticut, Maryland, New York,and Virginia.The markets offer such fare as fresh pasta,Wagyu beef,and imported cheeses.It also stocks prepared meals and beer and wine.Louis "Pop" Balducci opened the first Balducci's in Brooklyn in 1915 and expanded to Greenwich Village in Manhattan in 1946.In 2009 the private equity firm Irving Place Capital (formerly Bear Stearns Merchant Banking)sold six Balducci's stores to an investor group led by Jim Demme,senior advisor to the New York City-based investment firm Angelo,Gordon&Co.

Lund Food Holdings has been adding pharmacies to many of its stores. The grocer also operates an online shopping and home delivery service.Lund Food Holdings operates about 20 Lunds and Byerly's upscale grocery markets in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. The company took its present form in 1997 with the merger of Lunds and Byerly's. Both chains specialize in gourmet, high-quality foods, with locations offering artisan breads, bakeries, a line of organic foods and natural products, wine stores, florists, catering services, housewares, cooking demos, and community meeting rooms. Byerly's also runs a culinary school out of one of its stores. Through a partnership with Minnetonka-based PrairieStone Pharmacy.

A leading home furnishings retailer, Value City Furniture (VCF) is operated by American Signature and is part of its network of some 130 superstores in 20 US states in the East, Midwest, and Southeast. It offers furniture for the bedroom, dining room, and living room, as well as mattresses, bedding, and other accessories. VCF stores feature furnishings from more than 30 manufacturers and even carry American Signature's private-label furniture and bedding. The retailer also peddles its wares online. Founded in 1948, VCF is owned by holding company Schottenstein Stores.

Established in 1986 by John Beale, Past Times is a retailer of historical and vintage giftware. The chain has about 80 shops throughout the UK, which hawk items such as books, jewelry, and knick-knacks. In addition to its regular stores, Past Times operates several outlets and sells through catalogs and its Web site. Products on offer are often organized by era, but each store represents several eras such as Bauhaus, Art Deco, or Art Nouveau. In 2001 a consortium of investors, headed by Robin Klein's Accesserator Group and calling itself Retail Variations, bought the chain out of administration. It came under new ownership in 2005.

Menard is owned by president and CEO John Menard, who founded the company in 1972. If sticks and stones break bones, what can two-by-fours and two-inch nails do? That is what Menard is wondering now that its biggest rivals (#1 home improvement giant The Home Depot and #2 Lowe's) are hammering away at its home turf. One of the largest home improvement chains in the Midwest, Menard has more than 250 stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The stores sell home improvement products, such as floor coverings, hardware, millwork, paint, and tools. Unlike competitors, all the company's stores have full-service lumberyards.

Founded in 1947, Wausau Supply is owned by Joe Jordan and Ron Klimisch. Wausau Supply has good building materials to do business with. Wausau Supply operates through about 10 locations in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, distributing building materials to retail lumberyards in the Midwest. Products include adhesives from OSI, decking from CertainTeed, insulation from Owens Corning, locks from Schlage, windows from Simonton, and just about everything else needed to build a house. Among the services provided by the company are cabinet, door, and fireplace installation, as well as custom cement siding.

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.

Since its founding in 1889, the firm has developed the boysenberry along with varieties of peaches, oranges, roses, and the patented Hotbiscus Hibiscus and Wadda Tomato. In addition to its 100-acre nursery, the company has about 30 retail garden centers that operate under the Armstrong banner in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as about 15 Pike Nurseries locations in Atlanta and North Carolina. Its stores carry shrubs, flowering plants, fruit trees, and vegetables, as well as an assortment of dirt, planters, and garden tools. Company employees own 100% of Armstrong Garden Centers. It's strange to think that any company "invented" a fruit, but Armstrong Garden Centers does just that.

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