TBC Corporation is the nation's largest vertically integrated marketer of tires for the automotive replacement market. The Company's retail operations include Company-operated tire and automotive service centers under the " Tire Kingdom", "Merchant's Tire & Auto Centers", and "National Tire & Battery" brands, and franchised stores under the "Big O Tires" brand. TBC markets on a wholesale basis to regional tire chains and distributors serving independent tire dealers throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Through its Carroll Tire wholesale distribution centers, the Company also markets directly to independent tire dealers across the United States. Carroll Tire Company sells a wide variety of proprietary and national brands from 38 distribution centers.TBC markets and sells nine proprietary brands of tires through North America. The Multi-Mile, Cordovan, Sigma, Vanderbilt, Sumitomo, Eldorado, Laramie, Telstar, and Jetzon brands are produced by nationally recognized manufacturers and have a reputation for quality, safety, and value. These brands are distributed through TBC Private Brands and Treadways to independent retailers and wholesalers throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2005, TBC Corporation was purchased by Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA). SCOA is the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation (SC), one of Japan's major integrated trading and investment business enterprises. TBC Corporation still functions as an independent company of SCOA providing the same services and products it has for many years, but has ended its 22-year stint as a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ.

The Peacock Group has only just begun to display its full colorful strut, even though it's been fluttering around for more than a century. Founded in 1884 as Peacock's Penny Bazaar, the value-priced fashion retailer operates two chains: Peacock's, with 460 UK stores and about 45 franchised locations in Turkey, the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia, sells women's and men's apparel and accessories; and about 380 Bonmarche shops that offer women's apparel in sizes 12 to 24. Peacock Group supplies its own stores, as well as several other chains, with branded women's, men's, and children's apparel and footwear. The company was taken private in 2006 in a deal backed by Goldman Sachs, Perry Capital, and Och Ziff.

Kwik Trip operates about 350 Kwik Trip and Kwik Star convenience stores throughout Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The company also runs several Hearty Platter restaurants, about 40 Tobacco Outlet Plus (TOP) cigar stores, and car washes at some Kwik Trip store locations. All Kwik Trip stores built since 1990 are owned by Convenience Store Investments, a separate company, which leases the land and stores to Kwik Trip. Kwik Trip, which opened its first store in 1965 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is owned by the family of CEO Don Zietlow.

Art Van Furniture Michigan's #1 furniture seller offers medium-priced home furniture and bedding in some 35 Michigan stores. The chain has undergone a renovation, adding more upscale furniture (it sells Sealy, Simmons, and Broyhill brands) and perks such as children's play areas. The company is known for its aggressive sales and service. (Employees have been known to greet patrons carside with umbrellas on rainy days.) Chairman Art Van Elslander, who has 10 children (some active in the business), founded the firm with an East Detroit store in 1959. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.

Connor Co. was founded as Kinsey & Mahler, a brass valve manufacturer, in 1850. It became Connor Co. in 1936. Goldilocks would like Connor Co. If it's too hot or too cold, the heating and A/C company can make it just right. Through about 20 locations in Illinois and one in St. Louis, the company distributes heating and air conditioning equipment along with boilers, fittings, furnaces, pipes, pumps, valves, wells, and other industrial equipment. Connor company also conducts its business online. Connor Co. boasts sheet metal fabrication and valve automation facilities and peddles Kohler products within its showrooms in many locations.

In 1923 Frank McCoy founded a roofing company, which his son, Emmett, combined with McCoy Supply to form the McCoy Corporation. Today the firm is still family owned and led by CEO Brian McCoy, Emmett's son. Even though it's battling home-improvement giants The Home Depot and Lowe's, McCoy still has time for a day off. The company owns and operates about 80 McCoy's Building Supply Centers, which are concentrated primarily in Texas but also in Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. In keeping with its Texas roots, McCoy's also stocks farm and ranch products, and it runs two millwork facilities. The retailer adheres to a steadfast tradition of closing stores on Sundays.

Monrovia Nursery Company was founded in 1926 by the aptly named Harry Rosedale. A rose of any color keeps Monrovia Nursery in the black. Monrovia grows more than 20 million container-grown plants in 2,000 varieties at its five nurseries in California, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon. Among its offerings are camellias, conifers, ferns, perennials, rhododendrons, and trees. The company has introduced some 300 exclusive varieties, holding more than 200 patents and trademarks. Monrovia supplies more than 5,000 garden centers with its plants and also crafts topiary forms, including some at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. It has additionally developed more than 40 specialized soil mixtures.

GameStop Corp. operates as a retailer of video game products and personal computer (PC) entertainment software. It sells new and used video game hardware; video game software; video game accessories, including controllers, memory cards, and other add-ons; PC entertainment software; and strategy guides and trading cards. GameStop Corp. sells its products through its stores, as well as through electronic commerce Web sites, including gamestop.com, ebgames.com.au, gamestop.ca, gamestop.it, and micromania.fr. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 6,450 stores in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Europe primarily under the GameStop and EB Games names. GameStop Corp. also publishes Game Informer, a video game magazine in the United States. GameStop Corp. was founded in 1994 and is based in Grapevine, Texas.

Dillon's supermarkets have in-store pharmacies and many sell gas in the parking lot. Dillon Companies is losing market share to discounters, including Wal-Mart Supercenters, which has Dillon's parent company Kroger to become the 1 seller of groceries in the US.Dillon Companies, which began as J.S. Dillon and Sons Stores, has been selling bread to America's breadbasket bread since 1921. The regional supermarket chain has more than 200 combination food and drug stores under several banners; Dillons and Dillons Marketplace store in Kansas; Baker's Supermarkets and Food-4-Less in Nebraska; Gerbes in Missouri; and City Market and King Soopers in Colorado and Wyoming. In addition to traditional supermarket fare.

Champion Window Manufacturing is looking for a home-improvement boom as its window of opportunity. The company makes custom-built, vinyl-framed replacement windows and doors and sells them directly to homeowners through about 75 sales and installation offices in some 30 states. It also manufactures patio rooms, porch enclosures, and vinyl siding; remodels basements; and sells patio furniture made by third-party vendors. Champion Window, founded in 1953 by Alvin Levine and Arthur Stevens as a maker of aluminum storm windows, doors, and awnings, was owned by former executives Edward Levine (son of Alvin) and Bernard Barbash until mid-2007, when a private-equity investor gained control of day-to-day operations.

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