Earth Fare stores offer about 26,000 natural and organic products, house cafes and juice bars, sell vitamins and herbs, and offer deli service and cooking classes. Earth Fare was founded in 1975 by Roger Derrough who owns it along with other investors.Shoppers looking to fill their carts with products containing high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, artificial flavors, and synthetic growth hormones need not shop at Earth Fare. The regional organic and natural foods supermarket chain operates some 20 stores in Alabama, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennessee. Its stores are smaller than those of its conventional supermarket competitors and national natural foods chains like Whole Foods Market.

Tacony manufactures and distributes products in four business areas: sewing, home floor care, commercial floor care, and ceiling fans and lighting from about 10 distribution centers in the US. Tacony company's offerings bear such brands as Baby Lock (sergers and sewing machines), Koala Studios (sewing and craft furniture), Powr-Flite (janitorial equipment), Regency (ceiling fans and lighting), Riccar (vacuum cleaners), and Simplicity (vacuum cleaners). It also runs the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Outlet, which opened in 2009, in St. James, Missouri. Still a family-owned business, Nick Tacony, father of president Ken Tacony, founded Tacony company in 1946.

Neiman Marcus department stores offer high-fashion, high-quality women's and men's apparel (from such labels as Chanel and Prada), shoes and accessories, fine jewelry, china, crystal, and silver. The company operates about 40 Neiman Marcus stores in some 20 states and Washington, DC, as well as two Bergdorf Goodman stores in New York City and more than 25 Last Call clearance center outlets that sell marked down goods. Its mail-order and e-commerce business, Neiman Marcus Direct, distributes catalogs (which offer apparel, home furnishings, and gourmet foods) under the Neiman Marcus By Mail and Horchow names. The upscale retailer is owned by Newton Holding.

Residents of the Sun Belt have been known to leave their homes with Beall's on. The retail holding company operates through subsidiaries Beall's Department Stores, Beall's Outlet, and Burke's Outlet Stores in a dozen states. It has more than 560 department and outlet stores (about 200 are in Florida) located throughout states in the southern and western US, including Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Products range from off-price clothing and footwear for men and women to cosmetics, gifts, and housewares. Each chain has its own online shopping destination. The family-owned company was founded in 1915 by the grandfather of Chairman Bob Beall (pronounced "bell").

GNC is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Board Plan, its affiliate Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, and management. GNC filed to go public in September 2010.What's good for the customer is good for GNC Acquisition Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Centers). GNC operates the world's leading nutritional-supplements retail chain devoted solely to items such as vitamins and dietary products. The company also makes Rite Aid private-label products. It sells its products online, as well, through a partnership with drugstore.com. GNC has 2,800 company-owned retail stores in the US and Canada; 1,900 store-within-a-store sites in Rite Aid's drugstores; and 2,220 franchised stores in 47 countries.

Grupo Salinas is the group of companies owned by Ricardo B. Salinas, one of Mexico's wealthiest citizens. While not a holding company, Grupo Salinas has interests in financial services, media, retail, and telecommunications -- a few of which are listed on Mexico's stock exchange. It has controlling interests in the nation's #2 network, TV Azteca, cellular service provider Iusacell, and electronics retaler Grupo Elektra. Motorcycle manufacturer Italika launched production in 2005 and is Mexico's top seller, producing 300,000 bikes per year. Grupo Elektra's financial service firms, Banco Azteca, Seguros Azteca, and Afore Azteca, serve low-income families in Mexico, Brazil, and Peru.

Temperature Equipment Corporation has been selling Carrier equipment for over 70 years. TEC, started in 1935, is Carrier's third oldest independent distributor and one of Carrier's top performing distributors. TEC provides all HVAC needs from residential to commercial to industrial including equipment, controls, parts and supplies. TEC sells all Carrier brands, including Bryant, Payne, and Racan. TEC also sells complementary equipment and accessories. Headquartered in Lansing, IL, TEC's distribution territory covers all of Chicagoland, southwest Michigan and Northwest Indiana with locations East to South Bend, IN and Northwest to Rockford, IL. TEC serves its customers from 16 locations. In addition to its HVAC business, TEC-Properties leases office and warehouse space to a variety of tenants.

Carls Furniture is a home furnishings retailer with about 20 stores, including more than 10 Carls Patio showrooms, in Florida. Carls offerings include indoor furniture for the living room, bedroom, and dining room (sofas, chairs, dining table sets, occasional tables, entertainment centers, curios), as well as outdoor patio furniture collections (aluminum, wicker, teak). It also sells mattresses under the Sealy and Stearns & Foster brands. Carls' owners Mike Baker, Bob Dragin, and Fred Friedman purchased Carls Furniture in 1974. The company's Carls Patio division plans to continue growing in California through its Berk's and Saddleback of San Diego furniture operations.

Wolseley plc engages in the distribution of heating and plumbing products, and building materials to the professional contractors primarily in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Nordic region, and Central and Eastern Europe. Wolseley plc supplies plumbing, heating, and air conditioning products comprising baths, showers and accessories, sanitaryware, brassware, bathroom furniture, boilers and burners, radiators and valves, hot water cylinders and flues, control equipment, ventilation/air conditioning equipment, heat pumps and solar equipment, plastic pipes and fittings, and copper tubing and fittings. It also distributes building materials, such as insulation, plaster and plasterboard, roofing materials, bricks, blocks and aggregates, tiles and flooring, timber products, doors and frames, glass, beams, trusses and frames, hardware and tools, and cement. In addition, Wolseley plc supplies electrical products, including cables and cabling accessories, controls and switchgears, wiring accessories, lighting, data networking supplies, and cable management products; and civils/waterworks, industrial, and commercial products, such as drainage pipes, associated supplies and covers, underground pressure pipes, small bore pressure pipes and fittings, carbon and stainless steel pipes, and valves and fittings. Further, the company involves in the management of customer inventory and the installation of cabinets and fireplaces, as well as offers pipe fabrication and valve actuation, bathroom layout and design, and maintenance contract services. Wolseley plc operates approximately 4,118 branches in 25 countries. Wolseley was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Reading, the United Kingdom.

Other World Computing (OWC) has been providing quality hardware products and support to the computer industry since 1988 and features one of the largest online catalogs of computer, iPod, and iPhone enhancement products through its e-commerce portal www.macsales.com. As an Apple Certified Developer, OWC also provides extensive US based technical support for Macintosh users around the world as well as Internet access via www.fastermac.net and www.owc.net. OWC's industry awards and recognition include: Crain's Chicago Business 2009 "Fast 50" List of 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the Chicago Area; Computerworld Magazine Top Green-IT Companies for 2008; Inc. 5,000 Top 100 Computers & Electronics Companies 2007 to 2009; and McHenry County Economic Development Corporation 2008 Business Champion Award.By activating an on-site wind turbine in October 2009 at its Woodstock, IL corporate headquarters, OWC became the first technology manufacturer/distributor in U.S. to become 100% on-site wind powered. The turbine cleanly generates more net energy than is consumed by OWC's operations and datacenter. OWC's leadership role in environmental stewardship was officially acknowledged in March 2010, when the Other World Computing corporate campus was awarded LEED Platinum Certification by the Green Building Certification Institute. Platinum is the highest achievable level of the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Program, which began in 1998. Out of more than 14,000 LEED projects engaged worldwide since the program's inception, OWC is one ofless than three hundred to achieve the Platinum standard. With this recognition, OWC also became the first privately owned light manufacturing/assembly building in Illinois to obtain LEED Platinum status.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.