Charming Shoppes, Inc. operates as a specialty apparel retailer primarily for women in the United States. Charming Shoppes, Inc. operates retail stores and related e-commerce Web sites under the LANE BRYANT, LANE BRYANT OUTLET, FASHION BUG, and CATHERINES PLUS SIZES names. Its retail stores offer plus-size, misses, sportswear, dresses, coats, and intimate apparel, as well as accessories and casual footwear. Charming Shoppes, Inc. also sells food and specialty gifts through its FIGI’S catalog and related e-commerce Web site. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 2,121 retail stores. Charming Shoppes, Inc. was founded in 1940 and is headquartered in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Cascade Forest Corporation, formed in 1983 by the Johnson family, is a wholesale lumber brokerage that designs, produces, trades, and supplies wood products primarily in the western US. Its red cedar, douglas fir, and Chinese cedar are used to make fencing, porch and mailbox posts, construction framing, flooring, doors, and specialty outdoor structures, such as gazebos, arbors, and playground equipment. Cascade Forest also makes agricultural and industrial products, including fruit drying trays and bins used by farmers to dehydrate, sun dry, and transport crops. If you're in the wholesale lumber business you might be trying to keep up with the Johnsons.

Leader's Holding Company (better known as Leader's Casual Furniture) is a small furniture chain that that operates some 20 retail showrooms throughout the state of Florida. The furniture retailer sells such brand names as Capris, Jonathan Taylor, Carlton, Tropitone, Palm Springs Rattan, and Garden Classics. As part of its products portfolio, the company peddles indoor (including wicker and rattan) and outdoor home furnishings and related accessories. The family-owned company got its start as a single retail location in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 1971.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. hasn't outgrown the mall scene, but it's spending more time in other places. Beyond its 850 US mall-based stores, Sears has more than 1,300 other locations nationwide. The company operates more than 900 independently owned Sears Hometown Stores (formerly known as dealer stores) in small towns and about 105 Sears hardware stores and some 85 Orchard Supply Hardware shops. Sears' stores sell apparel, tools, and appliances, and provide home services (remodeling, appliance repairs) under the Sears Parts & Repair Services and A&E Factory brands. It also sells appliances and tools online. Sears was acquired by Kmart Holding Corp. in 2005. The deal formed Sears Holdings, which owns both chains.

Ross Stores, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates two chains of off-price retail apparel and home accessories stores in the United States. Its stores offer branded and designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions, as well as gift items, linens, and other home-related merchandise. The company’s merchandise offerings also comprise product categories, such as small furniture and furniture accents, educational toys and games, luggage, gourmet food and cookware, watches, and sporting goods, as well as fine jewelry in selected Ross stores. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 1,005 stores, including 953 Ross Dress for Less (Ross) locations in 27 states and Guam, and 52 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores in 4 states. Ross Stores, Inc. was founded in 1957 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

Gabriel Brothers sells discounted brand-name clothing through more than 100 stores, under the Gabriel Brothers (commonly called "Gabes") and Rugged Wearhouse banners. Stores are located in about a dozen East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states. The company's offerings include men's, women's, and children's apparel and footwear, as well as housewares, with markdowns as high as 70% off of their original retail prices. It carries such brands as Anne Klein, Kenneth Cole, and Liz Claiborne. The family-run company was established in 1961 by James and Arthur Gabriel.

Auto Sound Company, Inc. was founded in 1971. Auto Sound hopes car buyers automatically want better sound and plenty of fancy gadgets. The company sells vehicle accessories, including car audio components, mobile video units, navigation equipment, leather seating, and alarm systems, at its two locations in Middleton and Plainville, Massachusetts, as well as online. Auto Sound also offers custom grillwork, running boards, brush guards, and taillights, along with sunroofs and remote starters. Its Web site includes information on which safety devices qualify drivers for auto insurance discounts.

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.

Connor Co. was founded as Kinsey & Mahler, a brass valve manufacturer, in 1850. It became Connor Co. in 1936. Goldilocks would like Connor Co. If it's too hot or too cold, the heating and A/C company can make it just right. Through about 20 locations in Illinois and one in St. Louis, the company distributes heating and air conditioning equipment along with boilers, fittings, furnaces, pipes, pumps, valves, wells, and other industrial equipment. Connor company also conducts its business online. Connor Co. boasts sheet metal fabrication and valve automation facilities and peddles Kohler products within its showrooms in many locations.

Retailing giant Daimaru Matsuzakaya opened for business Monday, bringing to fruition the 2007 mega-merger between department store chains Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Bargain hunt: Shoppers flock for bargains at the Matsuzakaya department store in Tokyo's Ueno district Monday as the merged Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. began operations. KYODO PHOTOThe new chain, which combined under holding firm J. Front Retailing Co., will take over strategic planning and product procurement duties from J. Front to save costs amid the current deflation.

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