Residents of the Sun Belt have been known to leave their homes with Beall's on. The retail holding company operates through subsidiaries Beall's Department Stores, Beall's Outlet, and Burke's Outlet Stores in a dozen states. It has more than 560 department and outlet stores (about 200 are in Florida) located throughout states in the southern and western US, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Products range from off-price clothing and footwear for men and women to cosmetics, gifts, and housewares. Each chain has its own online shopping destination. The family-owned company was founded in 1915 by the grandfather of Chairman Bob Beall (pronounced "bell").

Founded in 1940 by Einer and Marie Jensen in Blue Jay, California, Jensen's was bought by longtime employee Gene Fulton in 1981 when the Jensens retired. The small grocery chain is owned and operated by the Fulton family.When in Palm Springs, customers check out the fine foods at Jensen's. Supermarket retailer Jensen's operates about 10 upscale grocery stores located in the mountains and deserts of Southern California. Each store specializes in offering gourmet items, as well as traditional supermarket fare including extensive selections of fresh produce, meats, and wines.

FJ Benjamin additionally controls an expanding roster of upscale pubs and sports bars in Singapore and Indonesia. Guess? what? FJ Benjamin brings 20-plus upscale western brands to Southeast Asia and Australia. The company operates about 185 retail outlets and distributes fashion apparel in eight Asia Pacific cities. (The company began opening Gap stores in Singapore and Malaysia in 2006.) With brands like Guess?, Valentino, Gap, La Senza, and house label RAOUL, FJ Benjamin derives two-thirds its turnover from the retailing and distribution of fashion products. The balance of its business lies in the distribution of timepieces, with Guess?, Girard-Perregaux, Nautica, and Marc Ecko boosting sales.

Foot Locker, Inc. operates as a retailer of athletic footwear and apparel. Foot Locker, Inc. operates in two segments, Athletic Stores and Direct-to-Customers. The Athletic Stores segment offers athletic footwear and apparel under various formats, including Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, and CCS. This segment offers footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories, as well as casual wear for various activities, including basketball, running, training, walking, toning, and fitness for young males, women, and children. The Direct-to-Customers segment, through its affiliates, sells athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, team licensed, and private-label merchandise through catalogs and Internet Websites. As of March 9, 2010, Foot Locker, Inc. operated 3,500 stores in North America, Europe, and Australia. It also franchises its Foot Locker stores in the Middle East and the Republic of Korea. As of January 30, 2010, the company had a total of 22 franchised stores. Foot Locker, Inc. was founded in 1879 and is based in New York, New York.

Variety is not only the spice of life -- it's also a major purveyor of deeply discounted merchandise. With some 425 stores in about 15 Southeastern states, Variety Wholesalers has survived even Wal-Mart's march through rural America. The company, which has aggressively bought other chains while closing poorly performing stores, tends to set up shop in small towns where the retail giants fear to tread. Its retail outlets sell beauty products, housewares, snacks, toys and more, under banners including Bargain Town, Maxway, Roses, and Super 10. Variety Wholesalers was founded in 1949 by James Pope; the Pope family, including chairman and CEO Art Pope, still runs the company.

J. Front Retailing fronts the retail operations of leading Japanese department stores The Daimaru and Matsuzakaya Holdings. The holding company was created by the merger of the two ailing rivals in 2007. The Daimaru, founded as a drapery shop in 1717, operates about 15 upscale shops in western Japan. Matsuzakaya, founded in 1611 as a kimono retailer, runs eight department stores in central Japan, including its flagship location in Nagoya. J. Front's Peacock Stores unit operates some 90 supermarkets in the Chubu, Kansai, and Tokyo districts of Japan. The company's other activities include construction, credit services, direct marketing, furniture making, restaurants, and wholesale textiles.

Bidz.com combines the markdowns of a dollar store, the format of an auction house, and the convenience of the Internet to bring sparkling deals to shoppers. The company buys closeout merchandise and sells it using a live-auction format, with $1 opening bids. It mostly sells jewelry, including gold, platinum, and silver items set with diamonds, as well as precious and semi-precious stones. Visitors can also find deals on electronics, apparel, and a range of collectibles (such as fine art, antiques, coins, and sports cards). In addition, the company operates Buyz.com, a fixed-price e-commerce site that offers similar items being listed for auction.

American Home operates three (down from a dozen in 2007) furniture and housewares stores in New Mexico under the American Home banner. Its products include mostly mid-priced (but some upscale) home furnishings (Kemp, Hillcraft, Natuzzi, DeCoro), lamps, bedding (Sealy, Simmons, Tempur-Pedic), rugs, dinnerware, related accessories, and gift registry and interior design services. Founded in 1936 as American Furniture Company by Emanuel Blaugrund, the company changed its name to American Home in 2000. The furniture retailer emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2010 after closing most of its stores, including all of its locations in Arizona.

Established in 1940, USG is a subsidiary of Colonial Commercial. Though Universal Supply Group (USG) doesn't supply the entire universe, it does have HVAC in the tri-state area covered. Through about 10 locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Universal Supply Group, Inc. distributes air conditioning, heating, and ventilation equipment and supplies. Its Universal Energy Products division designs and sells systems and control panels for energy conservation along with indoor air quality equipment while its Goldman Universal division distributes appliances to retail stores in the region. USG also offers training and climate control consulting for contractors and building engineers.

Kingfisher plc, through its subsidiaries, operates as a home improvement retailer. It offers wallpaper, vacuum cleaners, shutters, tiles, storage systems, lighting products, light switches, shower enclosures, and bathroom products, as well as provides gardening kits for kids and a range of tools for children. The company also offers bathroom and kitchen installation services, including flooring, tiling, hanging doors, and garage doors, as well as fires and electrical replacement products, such as sockets and light fittings. In addition, it offers iPhone application to carry out DIY projects at home. The company’s brands portfolio includes B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, Koctas, and Hornbach. Kingfisher offers its products and services through 840 stores, as well as through online in 8 countries in Europe and Asia. Kingfisher plc has a strategic alliance with Hornbach Holding A.G. Kingfisher plc was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

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