Charlotte Russe Holding is sweet on women's clothing. The mall-based retailer operates about 500 Charlotte Russe clothing stores in some 45 US states and Puerto Rico. The stores (averaging 7,100 sq. ft.) offer value-priced established and trendy fashions for women in their twenties and teens. Most merchandise carries the company's proprietary labels (Charlotte Russe, Refuge, and blu Chic). Charlotte Russe Holding company shut down its struggling 64-store Rampage chain in 2006, converting several locations to Charlotte Russe stores. Charlotte Russe Holding went public in 1999. Charlotte Russe Holding was taken private in 2009, when investment firm Advent International acquired Charlotte Russe.

Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg founded the employee-owned firm in 1930. It takes its name from a combination of its founders' names.Give Hy-Vee a high five for being one of the largest privately owned US supermarket chains, despite serving some modestly sized towns in the Midwest. The company runs more than 200 Hy-Vee supermarkets in eight Midwestern states: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. About half of its stores are in Iowa, as are most of its two dozen Hy-Vee drugstores. It distributes products to its stores through several subsidiaries, including Lomar Distributing (specialty foods) and Perishable Distributors of Iowa (fresh foods).

Etna Supply was founded in 1965. Unlike the volcano in Sicily that shares its name, Etna Supply spews out water, not fire. The company distributes equipment and supplies for residential and commercial plumbing, hydronic heating, waterworks and sewage facilities, and fire protection. It operates through about 15 locations in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Etna Supply company also offers related services, such as custom pipe flaring and threading, welding, valve and hydrant maintenance, and meter reading. Customers include architects, engineers, contractors, and homeowners.

R.C. Willey Home Furnishings drives traffic by giving away some 600,000 hot dogs a year at about a dozen stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. Despite Sunday store closures and operations in only four states, R.C. Willey is one of the nation's largest furniture retailers. Its offerings include furniture (La-Z-Boy, Flexsteel), appliances (GE, Maytag), electronics (Sony, Panasonic), and flooring. The firm also sells mattresses (Serta, Spring Air, Simmons). In 1932 Rufus Call (R.C.) Willey sold appliances door-to-door; today the company he founded is run by his son-in-law, chairman Bill Child, and grandsons. Berkshire Hathaway purchased the company in 1995.

Founder and president Bill Meadows began his business in the mid-1960s by growing produce and selling it on roadsides. He incorporated Meadow Farms as a nursery in 1974 and discontinued his produce business. Meadows Farms can help turn your lawn into something more like a meadow, if that's what you want. The company operates about two dozen nurseries in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. The nurseries sell plants, garden tools and accessories, gifts, housewares, seeds, soils, and other garden related merchandise. The company also offers landscaping and ground maintenance services. Meadows Farms also includes the Meadows Farms Golf Course, which features the Longest Hole in the US at 841 yards.

Spahn & Rose Lumber Co. is a retail lumber company with about 25 locations throughout Iowa and, to a lesser extent, in Illinois and Wisconsin. The company, which was organized in 1904, produces roof and floor truss systems and sells a variety of building supply products from such suppliers as Andersen (windows), Georgia-Pacific (lumber), CertainTeed (building materials), DuPont (plastics and flooring), MidContinent Cabinetry, (cabinets), Stanley Black & Decker (hand tools) and more. Spahn & Rose is promoting a range of green products, including recycled goods, solar reflective windows, and arsenic-free lumber.

Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy wants to offer far more than the prescriptions, over-the-counter aids, and greeting cards peddled by those other pharmacies. Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, Inc. operates about two dozen retail pharmacy and health stores in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington. Although filling prescriptions accounts for a large portion of the firm's revenues, Pharmaca also offers complementary medicines and products and even has herbalists, naturopaths, homeopaths, and other alternative-care advisors in its stores to help customers find what they need to treat what ails them. Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy, Inc. is expanding its presence in its established markets, most recently by acquiring Bay Pharmacy in California.

Selfridges Retail Limited Company Profile Manhattan has Macy's; London has Selfridges. With 540,000 sq. ft. of selling space, the flagship Selfridges & Co. department store is still one of the biggest stores in the world and one of the top shops on London's posh Oxford Street. Selfridges also runs two smaller department stores in Manchester and a fourth location in Birmingham. The upmarket retailer sells a wide selection of brand-name fashion apparel, electronics, and housewares, but it aims to entertain as well with 15 in-store bars, cafes, and restaurants and a nearby 250-room, four-star hotel.

Handy Hardware Wholesale was founded in 1961 with 13 members seeking to gain competitive advantage against large businesses and discount chains. Handy Hardware Wholesale has been grabbing market share from Ace Hardware since John Madden was a junior college coach. The company is a cooperative that provides more than 1,100 member-dealers in 10 mostly Southern states as well as in Central America with retail merchandise, primarily hardware, and building materials. The company's inventory also includes nursery, marine, and automotive products. The cooperative operates a central warehouse in Houston and keeps a fleet of more than 100 trailers for delivery.

Raymours Furniture Company operates more than 90 retail stores, including about 10 clearance centers, in half a dozen states. It sells furniture for just about every room in the house (bedroom, dining room, home office, living room), offering such pieces as bookcases, entertainment centers, headboards, mattresses, nightstands, recliners, sofas, and tables. Brands such as Broyhill, Hooker, Klaussner, La-Z-Boy, Natuzzi, and Tempur-Pedic are represented. Founded in 1947 by brothers Arnold and Bernard Goldberg, Raymour & Flanigan is run by next-generation Goldbergs, president and CEO Neil and EVPs Michael and Steven.

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