Zumiez Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of action sports related apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories in the United States. It offers apparel, including tops, bottoms, and outerwear, as well as accessories, such as caps, belts, and sunglasses; footwear consisting of athletic shoes and sandals; equipment, such as skateboards, snowboards, and ancillary gear, such as boots and bindings; and other items, such as miscellaneous novelties and DVDs. The company’s stores serve young men and women between the ages of 12 and 24, focusing on skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding, bicycle motocross, and motocross activities. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 377 stores under the Zumiez brand name primarily located in shopping malls in 35 states. In addition, the company sells its products directly through its Web site, zumiez.com. Zumiez Inc. was founded in 1978 and is based in Everett, Washington.

Agri-Starts was founded in 1984 by owners Randall Strode and Gerri Abner. Agri-Starts produces and wholesales tissue culture liners and micro cuttings. Put more simply, the company clones plants. The cloning process begins with a single growing tip cut from a plant. From this cut thousands of small plants are grown on a gelled nutrient-rich medium with growth regulators in a temperature- and light-controlled environment. Once the plants are large enough to harvest, Agri-Starts sells them as liners in cell packs to nurseries worldwide. The company maintains about 1,300 plant varieties, and its specialties include elephant ears, bananas, blueberries, and coleus plants.

Carrefour Italia sources more than 90% of its agricultural food products locally and sells its own brands of food, including the Terre D'Italia and ScelgoBio labels.Europe's leading retailer Carrefour knows that to live la dolce vita, you've got to buy lots of stuff. Its operations in Italy are carried out by Carrefour Italia, one of the country's biggest sellers of food and general merchandise, along with Conad and Coop Italia. Carrefour owns about 495 stores in Italy, which operate under the names Carrefour (about 65 hypermarkets), GS (about 235 supermarkets), DìperDì (some 175 convenience stores), and DocksMarket and GrossIper (about 15 cash-and-carry stores), and franchises more than a thousand others.

xel Johnson is one of the region's largest food importers and retailers.Through interests in affiliated units,the company operates discount and upscale supermarkets and department stores, imports and wholesales food for supermarkets and restaurants,and invests in small and midsized Swedish companies.Operating primarily in Sweden, Axel Johnson is one of four financially and legally independent corporations that are owned by Antonia Ax:son("Ax:son" is an abbreviated form of Axelson)Johnson and make up the Axel Johnson Group.

Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) is Canada's only nationwide drugstore chain, with locations in every province and two territories. With more than 1,200 drugstores, it's #2 north of the border, behind Katz Group. Most of the company's stores fly the Shoppers Drug Mart banner (Pharmaprix in Quebec). It also operates about 65 Shoppers Home Health Care stores. SDM ranks as a leading Canadian retailer of beauty products, with more than 225 in-store beauty boutiques that sell prestige cosmetics, fragrances, and skin care products. It is expanding in Quebec by opening new stores and acquiring independent pharmacies. The firm was founded in 1962 by Murray Koffler, a Toronto druggist.

Founded in 2000, the fast-growing online retailer attracts more than 5.3 unique visitors each month. Co-founder and CEO Nick Robertson owns about 14% of the company's shares. ASOS aims to become the leader in the UK online fashion world ASAP. The UK-based company is a leading online apparel retailer specializing in discount celebrity-style fashions. ASOS (which stands for "as seen on screen") serves mostly Web-savvy, fashionable 16- to 34-year-old men and women (the company claims to sell clothes in the style of superstars Sienna Miller and Victoria Beckham). It sells T-shirts, denim, dresses, footwear, lingerie, swimwear, sunglasses, purses, personal care products, and jewelry through its retail Web site.

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.

LiveDeal (formerly YP Corp.) is an Internet yellow pages and local online classifieds provider. The company offers goods and services listed for sale through its online classified marketplace at classifieds.livedeal.com; LiveDeal also publishes about 17 million business listings via its business directory at yellowpages.livedeal.com. Sources of revenue include advertising sales, a pay-per-lead program with major auto dealers, and optional listing upgrade and e-commerce/fraud prevention fees. The company changed its name from YP Corp. after its 2007 purchase of online local classifieds marketplace LiveDeal.

Grocery Outlet founded in 1946, the third-generation family-owned company sold an equity stake to the Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners in fall 2009. Grocery Outlet Inc. Company Profile Grocery Outlet operates about 135 deep-discount supermarkets in a half dozen western states, primarily California, Oregon, and Washington. The stores, which average about 20,000 square feet, sell a wide range of name-brand products, including groceries, wine and beer, fresh produce, household items, health and beauty care products, and over-the-counter drugs at up to 60% less than traditional supermarket chains. More than 50 of Grocery Outlet's stores are located in California.

Bradfords Building Supplies Ltd. was founded in 1770 by William Bradford, and today is run by his great, great, great grandson chairman Peter Bradford. From pressboard to brads, and everything in between, Bradfords Building Supplies offers builders things to swing hammers at, with, and on. Operating through about 25 branches in England, Bradfords Building Supplies provides contractors with appliances, bricks, decking, doors, electrical items, insulation, lumber, nails and screws, paint, plumbing and heating fixtures and equipment, roofing, safety wear, tools, and other construction or related materials. Bradfords also offers tool hire at about 10 branches. It also operates a company retail Web site.

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