Hannaford Bros. may have started as a fruit and vegetable stand in 1883, but it has expanded from its Maine roots to become an upscale grocer with more than 170 stores under the Hannaford Supermarkets banner throughout Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, upstate New York, and Vermont. Still, produce continues to be a major focus at the Hannaford supermarkets, as are expansive meat selections and natural food products. More than 75% of the Hannaford stores are combination grocery stores and pharmacies. The stores average about 48,500 sq. ft. Maine's largest supermarket chain, Hannaford Bros. is owned by Delhaize America (parent of Food Lion), which in turn is owned by Belgium's Delhaize Group.

Sur La Table, Inc sells appliances, bakeware, cookbooks, housewares, specialty foods, and other goodies for professional and home chefs from about 80 stores in some 30 states, a website, and catalogs that make foodies drool. For customers who aren't sure how to best use the Le Creuset casserole dish, Cuisinart food processor, or Chef's Choice waffle maker, the company offers cooking classes and cookbook signing events in many of its stores. Founded in 1972 at Seattle's famous Pike's Place Market, Sur La Table is owned jointly by the Behnke family, including its chairman Carl Behnke, and private investor Freeman Spogli.

The Pampered Chef, a direct seller of more than 300 gourmet kitchen gadgets, cookware, cookbooks, and foodstuffs. It boasts about 60,000 independent sales reps who hawk their wares at in-home kitchen parties (à la Tupperware) throughout North America, Germany, and the UK. It's the largest of its kind in the US. Reps demonstrate product use and care and share recipes. As incentive (à la Mary Kay), reps can ultimately "earn" jewelry and trips. Founded in 1980 by home economist and educator Doris Christopher, The Pampered Chef was acquired by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2002.

The Pantry merchandise products include tobacco products, packaged beverages, beer and wine, general merchandise, health and beauty care products, self-service fast foods and beverages, salty snacks, fast food service, candy, dairy products, bread and cakes, grocery and other merchandise, and newspapers and magazines. As of December 14, 2010, the company operated 1,672 stores in 13 states under select banners, including Kangaroo Express, its primary operating banner. The Pantry was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.The Pantry, Inc. operates a convenience store chain in the southeastern United States. Its stores offer a selection of merchandise, gasoline, and ancillary products and services.

Mattress Holding Corp. operates some 530 company-owned and franchised Mattress Firm stores in about 20 states. The company sells conventional (Sealy, Simmons) and specialty (Tempur-Pedic, Sleep Number) mattresses, bed frames, and other bedding accessories, and is the #1 seller of Sealy mattresses in the country. From its humble beginning in 1986 when three friends pooled their resources to purchase a downtrodden spot in a Houston strip center, the Mattress Firm chain has grown into a leading US bedding retailer. The company was acquired in 2007 by investment firm J.W. Childs Associates (JWC).

Carrefour Polksa is the Polish arm of the French retail giant Carrefour SA. Carrefour Polksa has about 350 stores, only about 75 of which are the large hypermarkets its French parent company is best known for. The other stores in Poland are smaller supermarkets under the name Carrefour Express, convenience stores under the brand 5 minut, and gas stations. Carrefour Polksa opened its first store in Lodz in 1997. In 2007 it bought 183 Albert supermarkets, 15 Hypernova hypermarkets, and four gas stations from Royal Ahold. The next year the company introduced mobile phone service, called Carrefour Mova.

Since 1859, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. (A&P) has fulfilled the shopping needs of families throughout North America with freshness, quality, variety and value. In December 2007, Pathmark Supermarkets, with its 141 stores, joined the A&P Family of Supermarkets.With corporate headquarters in Montvale, N.J., A&P operates 395 stores in the United States under 6 retail banners which include conventional supermarkets, food and drug combination stores, discount food stores, and several in-store Health Clinics. A&P employs 40,688 associates. Annualized sales volume is approximately $8.8 billion. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol "GAP." The Company distributes private label product lines sold exclusively throughout its U.S. banners under the trade names America's Choice, Master Choice, Health Pride, Savings Plus, and Pathmark.With pride in its 152-year history, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company today looks forward to a future of continued service to its customers, communities and employees throughout North America.

Blish-Mize Co. has distribution centers in Colorado and Kansas. Aside from its wholesaling business, Blish-Mize operates toolmaker Hardware House with House-Hasson. Brothers-in-law David Blish, Edward Mize, and Jack Silliman founded the firm in 1871 to outfit wagon trains. President and CEO John Mize, Jr., represents the fourth generation of the family-owned company. Hardware supplier Blish-Mize distributes more than 52,000 products to hardware stores, home centers, lumberyards, and paint stores in a dozen states in the heartland of the US. Its catalog includes hand and power tools, lawn equipment, hardware, paint, heating and cooling products, housewares, plumbing and electrical supplies, and sporting goods.

Harps operated as a family-run chain until 2001 when it became an employee-owned business.It's tough to survive in the face of Arkansas giant Wal-Mart, but Harps Food Stores (founded when Sam Walton was 12 years old) is putting up a fight. The company, which got its start when Floy and Harvard Harp put down $500 cash and opened the first Harp's Cash Grocery in 1930, operates more than 60 grocery stores, mostly in Arkansas but also in Missouri and Oklahoma. Its stores, operating under the Harps Food Stores and Price Cutter Food Warehouse banners, range in size from 13,000 to 63,000 sq. ft. and often feature bakeries, pharmacies, and meat departments

Schnuck Markets founded in 1939, the company is owned by the Schnuck family and run by CEO Scott Schnuck and president and COO Todd Schnuck.If you'll meet me in St. Louis, then chances are there'll be a Schnucks in sight. The region's largest food chain, Schnuck Markets operates about 105 stores, mostly in the St. Louis area, but also in other parts of Missouri and in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. All stores offer a full line of groceries, and most have pharmacies, video rental outlets, in-store banking, and florist shops. Although most stores operate under the Schnucks banner, the company also runs about a half a dozen Logli supermarkets in Illinois and Wisconsin, and a specialty pharmacy.

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