J.P. Boden & Co. (better known simply as Boden) is a UK direct retailer of premium casual apparel. The company sells womenswear and menswear under the Boden name, teen apparel under the Johnnie B label, and children's clothing under the Mini Boden brand. It markets the collections through its catalogs and Web site. J.P. Boden also operates two retail stores in the UK. The company got its start in 1991 when chairman Johnnie Boden quit his job as a stockbroker in London to open up his own clothing business. Designing its catalogs to resemble those of J. Crew, the company's first editions featured friends and family striking poses as fashion models. Boden is a 50% owner of the firm.

AUTOBACS STRAUSS INC. was created in 1982 through the acquisition of Strauss, a New York City auto-parts chain founded in 1919, by R&S Auto. It spent two years under the ownership of Japan's AUTOBACS SEVEN CO. before being sold back to its former owner Glenn Langberg in 2009. If your car conks out in the city that never sleeps you might seek out AUTOBACS STRAUSS (formerly Strauss Discount Auto) for a wake-up call. The auto parts and service chain has about 75 locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The stores sell accessories and car-care products, as well as hard parts such as batteries, mufflers, radiators, and spark plugs, tires, and tools. Many locations also offer repair services.

RepairClinic.com® provides the do-it-yourself consumer market with the resources needed to fix their household appliances, vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and outdoor power equipment. We have an extensive inventory of more than one million parts that we photograph, define, and categorize to make them easier for customers to find and purchase. To assist more than 75,000 individuals each month with free repair help information, we have assembled a vast library of text documents, diagrams, and high-definition videos. We are continuously updating the library and training our employees with current parts and repair information to offer the best customer service possible. Our extraordinary return policy allows any part, including electrical parts, to be returned within 30 days for your money back. And with our same day shipping guarantee on all in stock parts, there is no wonder why more than two million customers nationwide have purchased parts from RepairClinic. RepairClinic began in 1999 in a small, rented office with a team of seven people. By 2004, to accommodate our rapidly growing inventory and staff of over 50 employees, we built a 60,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Canton, MI. We have since added 26,000 sq. ft. and 80 more employees including a team of bi-lingual customer care representatives.

Founded in 1932 by Nicola and Pasquale D'Agostino Dahl's Foods regional supermarket chain in still owned and operated by the D'Agostino family.D'Agostino Supermarkets sells food for the body and soul to New York City residents. The company operates nearly 20 grocery stores, mostly in Manhattan but also in Westchester County, New York that feature deli and floral departments, seafood and meat counters, and an ample supply of fresh and organic produce. In addition to name-brand items, the grocer sells everything from ice cream to chips and chickens under its D'Agostino label; it also has developed the Earth Goods product line for environment- and health-conscious shoppers.

Dollar General's at ease with living off the crumbs of Wal-Mart. The retailer commands a chain of more than 9,000 discount stores in 35 states, primarily in the southern and eastern US, the Midwest, and the Southwest. Offering basic household items, such as cleaning supplies and health and beauty aids, as well as some apparel and food, it targets low-, middle-, and fixed-income shoppers. Stores are generally located in small towns off the radar of giant discounters. Its big-city stores (about 30% of its total) are situated in lower-income neighborhoods. Some 25% of its merchandise is priced at $1 or less. Two years after being taken private by affiliates of KKR and Goldman Sachs, the chain went public in 2009.

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.

H&M opened its first women's clothing store in 1947 as Hennes (Swedish for "hers"); it later bought the hunting and men's clothing store Mauritz Widforss. H&M is controlled by the family of chairman Stefan Persson (the billionaire son of founder Erling Persson). H&M Hennes & Mauritz targets the Hip & Modish. The firm designs cheap yet chic clothing, mainly for men and women ages 18 to 45, children's apparel, and its own brands of cosmetics. Fast-growing H&M operates about 2,000 stores in some 35 countries and has direct sales operations in selected areas. Germany is H&M's #1 market, accounting for about 25% of sales. About 60% of its clothing is made in Asia, the rest is manufactured primarily in Europe.

Steinhoff UK Retail wants it customers to fill their homes with furniture with its help. Formerly named Homestyle Group until 2007, the company is one of Britain's largest furniture retailers. Its furniture division, Harveys Furnishing Group, operates about 170 Harveys: The Furniture Store shops throughout the UK. Its beds division operates Bensons Beds (the UK's largest bed retailer with 220 stores and 15,000 branded beds), Bed Shed (more than 50 stores primarily in Scotland), and Sleepmasters (with nearly 120 retail sites in the UK). Steinhoff Europe AG, a subsidiary of Steinhoff International Holdings (SIH), took the company private in 2007.

It was M.O. Lee - then president of VF Corporation - who suggested holding a public sale one Saturday morning to clear out excess inventory of Berkshire International. That day, the merchandise completely sold out, even though the only advertising had been word of mouth. The store was so busy that even Lee bagged merchandise and manned the cash register. “You could see his mind working,” said John Jackson, merchandise manager of Intimate Apparel at the time. “He was thinking he could make the store bigger. We just had a drop cloth on the back wall, and we kept moving it back.”Pleased and surprised at the success of the sale, Lee scheduled a bigger one for two weeks later, with merchandise brought in from other VF sources. That sale was even more successful, and the VF Outlet business was launched. Selling Berkshire and Vanity Fair surplus products, the factory store was 5,000 square feet, with only a drop cloth separating it from the manufacturing facility. VF Corporation - which opened the store in 1970 - was one of the earliest outlet operators, and opened the first outlet center in the country, in Reading, Pennsylvania.

George has extended its brand to housewares, jewelry, and more and recently began selling merchandise online. Factories in Bangldesh and China supply most of the goods. By George if George Clothing isn't one of the UK's largest apparel retailers! Founded by and named for the fashion entrepreneur George Davies in 1990, the George brand of apparel for men, women, and children (including school uniforms) occupies about 12.5% of its parent company ASDA's floorspace and accounts for 10% of its sales in the UK. About half of all of George's sales are rung up overseas in shops owned by the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores in countries that include Argentina, Canada, China, India, Japan, Mexico, and the US.

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