Founded in 1971 with a modest 800-sq.-ft. home furnishings showroom, City Furniture sells furniture, mattresses, rugs, and accessories through about 15 showrooms across the state of Florida (in Broward, Martin, Collier, Lee, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties). Half of the company's products are made in the US. Alongside countless others in its industry, City Furniture obtains 75% of its imported furniture from China; the balance comes from Vietnam and Indonesia. Its marketing in South Florida has the company exporting its products to the Caribbean and Latin America, as well.

Burton Lumber & Hardware Co. was founded in 1911 by Willard C. Burton. cFamily-owned-and-run Burton Lumber & Hardware designs, makes, and installs truss and floor packages, wall panels, and doors (interior and exterior) from its facility in Salt Lake City. It also sells and installs Heatilator-brand fireplaces and building materials made by Trex, James Hardie, and other companies. Burton Lumber & Hardware operates half a dozen locations in Utah and offers delivery services throughout the state. Its customers have included contractors, home builders, and government agencies.

Simply Amazing (which does business as Amazing Savings) operates about a dozen closeout retail stores in New York and New Jersey. The company offers overstocked and discontinued goods (such as apparel, housewares, and appliances) purchased in bulk from manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. Begun as a single shop in 1989, Simply Amazing operated 14 stores in three states when it bought ailing Odd Job Stores in 2003. Post-acquisition, it ran about 85 stores in nine states. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2005 and shuttered 69 stores as part of the reorganization that led within a few months to its emergence from bankruptcy.

Marks and Spencer Group plc, through its subsidiaries, engages in retailing clothing, food, and home products in the United Kingdom and internationally. It offers clothing, including womenswear, lingerie, menswear, school wear, and kids wear; flowers, gifts, cards and stationery, books, compact discs, and digital versatile discs (DVDs). The companys home and furniture products include bedroom furniture, beds and mattresses, cabinet furniture, conservatory and outdoor products, dining tables and chairs, and sofas and armchairs for living and dining rooms, kitchen, home offices, bedrooms, and bathrooms; and cookware, dinnerware, home accessories, household electricals, lighting, luggage, soft furnishings, storage products, and towels and bathmats. In addition, it sells TVs, blu-rays, and DVD players; home cinema products; hi-fi and radios;

Founded in Boston in 1909 by Edward Filene, the company in 2009 was acquired out of bankruptcy by rival off-price retailer Syms Corp. Syms has maintained long-held traditions, such as the annual "Running of the Brides," at 100-year-old Filene's Basement, as well as the Filene's name and many of the company's employees. You don't have to go underground to get to Filene's Basement. The retailer operates about 25 stores under the Filene's Basement and fbSY banners in Massachusetts, New York, and half a dozen other states and the District of Columbia. The stores sell off-price men's and women's designer and name-brand apparel and shoes, as well as jewelry and home goods.

Balkamp was formed in 1936 by the NAPA board of directors. Its moniker blends the surnames of the company's first managers, John Baldwin and Bob Leercamp. A majority-owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts, Balkamp distributes parts and accessories for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and farm equipment to repair shops and retail members of the National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA). The company also provides diagnostics equipment, cleaning supplies, chemicals, and other service-related items. Balkamp offers some 45,000 items from about 600 domestic and foreign suppliers. It operates distribution centers in Indianapolis and Plainfield, Indiana and West Jordan, Utah.

Lansing Building Products was founded in 1955 by Ted Lansing, J.C. Griffith, and J.C. McLane. Film icon Woody Allen can keep Interiors; just leave the exteriors to Lansing. Lansing Building Products provides contractors located mostly in the Southeastern US with exterior building products, including decking, doors, gutters, roofing, siding, skylights, tools and equipment, vinyl railing, windows, and other building materials. It serves its contractor clients through some 65 locations in about 25 states plus Washington DC. Besides products, the company offers marketing services, Web site development and hosting, and complimentary safety consultations.

The regional home improvement center chain was founded in 1962. A management group led by chairman and former CEO Charles Bender acquired the company in 1988 and now owns about one-quarter of Busy Beaver, which is facing heavyweight competition from big-box chains, such as Home Depot and Lowe's. They're busy as, well, you know what kind of animals at Busy Beaver Building Centers. The company has 15 stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia selling ceilings, flooring, lumber, plumbing fixtures, and other building materials, along with garden supplies, hardware, power equipment, and tools. Busy Beaver serves the professional contractor as well as the do-it-yourselfer.

Leon's Furniture Ltd. sells home furnishings, bedding, appliances, and electronics through about 65 company-owned and franchised stores throughout Canada and online. Its store banners include Shop for Furniture, Shop for Appliances, and Shop for Electronics. Its stores carry such brands as Frigidaire, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sealy, Simmons, and Whirlpool, among others. Leon's also wholesales appliances to builders, landlords, and retailers through its Canada Appliances division. Ablan Leon founded the company in 1909; more than a century later, it is still owned and operated by the Leon family.

Gabberts Design Studio & Fine Furnishings offers high-end furnishings in a variety of styles -- ranging from traditional to contemporary and from casual to refined -- for your living room, dining room, family room, bedroom, and home office. Gabberts' 63,000-square-foot store in Edina, Minnesota employs in-house interior designers, which it considers a competitive advantage. Founded in 1946 by Don Gabbert as a tire and appliance store, the company was owned and run by the Gabbert family until it was acquired by HOM Furniture in 2008. Gabberts' new owner continues to operate the business under the Gabberts banner.

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