Bhs was founded in 1928, and at the time the highest price for any item found inside was a mere shilling. Over the years it has expanded its merchandise line, and has opened more than a dozen stores specializing in exclusively homewares. Bhs Limited company is owned by billionaire UK retail investor, managing director Philip Green. Bhs wants to prevent its customers from throwing open their closet doors and letting out big heavy sighs. Formerly British Home Stores, Bhs operates more than 100 stores throughout the UK. One of the high street's best-known names, it sells clothing, shoes, and accessories for men, women, and children, as well as a variety of furnishings, appliances, gifts, and accessories for the home.

Food 4 Less stores average about 56,000 square feet and in addition to deeply discounted groceries sell fresh produce, bakery and dairy items, ethnic foods, and meat to compete against supercenters and warehouse clubs.Food 4 Less Holdings operates about 145 price-impact warehouse stores under the Food 4 Less banner in Southern California, Illinois, Indiana, and Nevada. A division of grocery giant Kroger, the company operates about 80 of Food 4 Less' no- frills stores operate in the crowded Southern California grocery market where it competes with Safeway-owned Vons, Stater Bros., and relative newcomer Wal-Mart Stores, which has set its sights on Southern California for expansion.

Northern Tool rings up revenues through its catalogs (biggest sales channel), websites, and more than 60 retail stores in a dozen states. CEO Donald Kotula founded Northern Tool as a mail-order shop in 1981. Serious do-it-yourselfers put their kids to sleep with bedtime stories from the catalogs of Northern Tool & Equipment. Stocked with more than 27,000 products, the company offers an assortment of heavy-duty tools as well as construction and industrial equipment (such as air compressors, power generators, and pressure washers). Its primary customers include building contractors, automotive shops, and the do-it-yourself crowd. The firm also markets gadgets and gifts through its Kotula's division.

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.

Founded in 1912, furniture retailer Star Furniture operates 10 stores in Texas (seven in Houston and one each in Austin, Bryan, and San Antonio). The regional chain sells bedroom, dining room, living room, and home office furniture, as well as clocks, home entertainment walls, rugs, and more. Brands include Bernhardt, Broyhill, Howard Miller, Natuzzi, Hooker, Kincaid, Serta, Tempur-Pedic, and Thomasville, among others. The company also carries big screen HD televisions in its home theater department, but does not stock other appliances. Star Furniture is owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

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.

Lucy Activewear, founded in 1999, also sells merchandise through its website. V.F. Corporation acquired the fast-growing company for $110 million in 2007 and has since made Lucy part of its outdoor and action sports division (or what V.F. calls a "coalition"), which also includes The North Face and JanSport. If you're an avid outdoorswoman or a yoga devotee, you're likely to end up loving this Lucy. Lucy Activewear sells women's activewear (including tops, bottoms, jackets, and bras) through about 65 company-owned stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Coburn Supply was founded in 1934 by the late Albert J. Coburn. Coburn keeps things cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Coburn Supply distributes air-conditioning and heating equipment, builder, electrical, and plumbing products, refrigeration, and municipal and utility supplies. It operates offices and showrooms through about 30 locations in Louisiana, some 15 in Texas, and a few in Mississippi and Tennessee. Its featured manufacturers have included Trane (formerly American Standard), Cantex, Delta Faucet, Halsey-Taylor, and Maytag. Coburn Supply distributes its products to general, plumbing, HVAC, and mechanical contractors, as well as to home builders, municipalities, and public institutions.

Harvey Nichols is an international luxury lifestyle store, renowned both in the UK and internationally for the breadth and depth of its exclusive fashion merchandise. It offers many of the world's most prestigious brands in womenswear, menswear, accessories, beauty, food and home.Harvey Nichols currently has stores in London, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Leeds in the UK, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, a store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in Hong Kong, China, in Dubai, UAE, Istanbul, Turkey, Jakarta, Indonesia and and a further store in Ankara, Turkey. The London flagship store is located in the heart of Knightsbridge, London's most fashionable and exclusive shopping district.

They are in a Southern state of mind at Sutherland Lumber. Sutherland Lumber Company, L.P. operates about 60 Sutherlands lumber and home improvement stores in a dozen states, primarily in the southern and southwestern US. Stores sell an array of building products, including lumber, concrete, roofing and siding, paint, plumbing supplies, tools, hardware, and design packages for houses, sheds, garages, and decks. They also offer appliances, cabinets and doors, furniture, lighting, lawn and garden equipment, and materials for hobbies and crafts. Sutherland Lumber Company, L.P., which is owned and operated by the Sutherland family, was founded in 1917 to supply Oklahoma farmers with building materials.

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