Sensational Beginnings (SB) helps kids start having fun early. The catalog and online merchant sells educational toys, furniture, and safety and child care items for infants and toddlers. (SB also operates a single store in Michigan.) Toy categories include science and nature, ride-ons, musical instruments, indoor active play, travel kits, and seasonal items. SB also offers gift-giving and parenting advice, a gift registry, and an online photo gallery of children using company products. Customers can shop by brand, category, or age group or get advice on age-appropriate toys and games. President Debra Shah, a former nurse specializing in mother and child medical care, founded Sensational Beginnings, Inc. in the early 1990s.

Every season is Halloween season for Internet-only retailer Buyseasons. The company operates BuyCostumes.com, a leading seller of costumes, accessories, and seasonal decor and party supplies on the Web. In addition to costumes for kids and adults, Buycostumes.com offers a large selection of masks, makeup, props, mascot costumes, and costumes for pets. Buyseasons also operates the Celebrate Express portfolio of Web sites, which includes BirthdayExpress.com, 1stWishes.com, and CostumesExpress.com. Founded in 1999, Buyseasons was acquired by holding company Liberty Media in 2006 and joined the Liberty Interactive Group of Internet companies.

The Inchcape lighthouse lies 11 miles out to sea off the East coast of Arbroath, Scotland. It stands on one of the most treacherous submerged reefs in the northern hemisphere and is one of the seven wonders of the Industrial Age.Thanks to the pioneering spirit of a young engineer, Robert Stevenson, who dreamed of building the impossible, a lighthouse was planned on the ‘Rock’ that had claimed over 100 lives.Despite many obstacles, Stevenson never lost faith in his plan, and by February 1811, the lighthouse on Inchcape Rock was finished. It is the oldest, sea-standing lighthouse in the world and today, still saves lives.100 years later, inspired by this pioneering spirit, Inchcape’s founder James Lyle MacKay, when awarded a title for his services to industry became the first ‘Baron Inchcape of Strathnaver’ and so named the company that he led.

Founded by Samuel Silverman in 1912, today jewelry chain Ben Bridge Jeweler operates more than 70 stores in a dozen mostly western states, including Alaska and Hawaii. The company sells platinum, 14- and 18-karat gold jewelry, diamonds, watches, and bridal and anniversary fare from its mall-based stores and Web site. Ben Bridge married Silverman's daughter in 1922, bought out his father-in-law, and renamed the company after himself. Still run by the Bridge family, the company became a subsidiary of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2000.

Fletcher Jones Management Group holds the title as the US's top Mercedes seller. It rolls out Benzes from a 225,000-sq.-ft. superstore in Las Vegas; a 186,000-sq-ft. store in Newport Beach, California; a dealership in Chicago; and another in Honolulu. Fletcher Jones also operates another dealership in Chicago, five more in Hawaii, an another two in California, two more in Las Vegas, and one in Reno, Nevada, selling cars from Audi, Ford, Honda, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen. The company is owned by president and CEO Fletcher Jones Jr., whose father started it in 1954 with one Los Angeles dealership.

Holiday Diver urges those who enjoy getting wet while going down under to swim over to its Divers Direct Web site. The online store sells everything to dress the diving enthusiast from head to fin. It also offers beach wear, shoes, sunglasses, and jewelry. On the bricks-and-mortar side of business, the company operates five scuba shops in Florida that also do business under the Divers Direct name. The shops offer air tank fills in addition to beach essentials and dive gear. Holiday Diver was founded in 1984 as Divers Outlet.

Recreation is serious business for Affinity Group. The direct marketing firm sells goods and services through its membership and discount buyers clubs, such as Good Sam, Coast to Coast Resorts, Camp Club USA, and President's Club. It offers RV products (including air conditioners, sanitation systems, furnishings) not usually found in general merchandise stores at about 80 Camping World specialty shops across the US, as well as via catalog and online. Affinity also publishes magazines and travel guides, from which it derives subscription fees and ad sales revenue. Chairman Steve Adams is the majority owner of both Affinity and, through another entity, RV retailer FreedomRoads.

Hong Kong-based Chow Sang Sang has its eye on China and the growing luxury market there. The company operates about 155 Chow Sang Sang jewelery stores in some 60 cities across mainland China, with another 50-plus stores in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The fast-growing jeweler aims to open another 50 shops in the near future. The company makes and sells necklaces, bracelets, watches, diamonds, and other shiny luxuries and trendy baubles. Chow Sang Sang has production facilities in China and in Hong Kong. It also wholesales precious metals (gold, platinum, and palladium) and brokers stocks and commodities. Chairman Kwen Lim Chow and general manager Wing Shing Chow together own about a third of the company.

Leif Johnson Ford sells, you guessed it, Ford vehicles. The company's inventory includes new Ford cars, trucks, and SUVs, as well as used vehicles of all makes. Leif Johnson Ford lets customers shop for, customize, and order vehicles as well as apply for financing online. Customers can schedule service appointments or order parts on its site, too. Leif Johnson Ford's AJ Rent-A-Car allow temporary use of a variety of vehicles from a Ford Focus to a 15-passenger van. The company, with a pair of locations in Austin, Texas, was founded in 1957 by Texas Land Commissioner Bob Armstrong. Leif Johnson, father of CEO Robert Johnson, purchased it in 1967 after being the manager for many years.

EZCORP, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, lends or provides credit services to individuals to meet their short-term cash needs. It offers pawn loans, which are non recourse loans collateralized by tangible personal property, including jewelry, consumer electronics, tools, sporting goods, and musical instruments. The company also provides signature loans consisting of payday loans, installment loans, auto title loans, or fee-based credit services to customers seeking loans. In addition, EZCORP provides credit services, including advice and assistance to customers in obtaining loans from unaffiliated lenders. As of September 30, 2009, it operated a total of 910 locations consisting of 369 the U.S. pawnshops, 62 pawnshops in Mexico, 477 the U.S. short-term loan stores, and 2 short-term loan stores in Canada. EZCORP, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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