Shoppers Drug Mart (SDM) is Canada's only nationwide drugstore chain, with locations in every province and two territories. With more than 1,200 drugstores, it's #2 north of the border, behind Katz Group. Most of the company's stores fly the Shoppers Drug Mart banner (Pharmaprix in Quebec). It also operates about 65 Shoppers Home Health Care stores. SDM ranks as a leading Canadian retailer of beauty products, with more than 225 in-store beauty boutiques that sell prestige cosmetics, fragrances, and skin care products. It is expanding in Quebec by opening new stores and acquiring independent pharmacies. The firm was founded in 1962 by Murray Koffler, a Toronto druggist.

George Bence & Sons has provided builders with the tools of their trade for more than a century. Established in 1899, the firm sells construction products including concrete blocks, insulation, hardboard, and paints to national builders and do-it-yourself buyers. Its delivery program utilizes a 20-vehicle fleet that operates within a 40-mile radius. Other services include plot scheduling, in which housebuilding items are delivered on a pre-arranged schedule, and landscape planning. George Bence & Sons operates from offices in Cheltenham and Bristol.

Harrow Stores sells outdoor home furniture, above ground swimming pools and spas, backyard accessories, and seasonal items (it is particularly known for its Christmas decorations) through several stores in New York and a single location in New Jersey. Harrow's, owned by Ken Ehrlich, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2007.

Drugs are merely part of the story at Discount Drug Mart. One of the largest drugstore chains in Ohio, Discount Drug Mart, Inc. offers pharmacy services, medical and home health care supplies, and over-the-counter medications, as well as groceries (including fresh produce), beauty aids, pet supplies, housewares, and hardware. It also provides video rentals and photo developing service. Discount Drug Mart's nearly 70 stores are 25,000 sq. ft. on average, about twice the size of its rivals' locations, but smaller and more convenient than its national big-box competitors, such as Wal-Mart and Target. Chairman and CEO Parviz Boodjeh owns Discount Drug Mart, Inc., which he founded in 1969.

Founded in 1952, Interstate Battery System of America, Inc. is owned by chairman Norm Miller. Interstate Battery System of America offers a battery of batteries. Interstate Battery System of Amerian can provide the electrical juice for everything from cell phones and laptops to boats, lawn mowers, motorcycles, and RVs. It also makes replacement automobile batteries for such brands as Ford, Subaru, and Toyota. Consumers can purchase Interstate Battery's products online and at more than 200,000 retail locations, including some 340 Interstate All Battery Centers in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Interstate Battery System of America, Inc. has about 300 distributors throughout North America. Interstate Battery sponsors the Joe Gibbs Racing team on the NASCAR circuit.

The subsidiary of CDW Corporation bought Technology Resource Center, which served higher education customers, in late 2006 and folded it into its operations. You might say this company is schooled in how best to sell computers to the public sector. CDW Government is a leading supplier of computer products to public education institutions and other federal, state, and local government agencies. It offers wide selection of hardware and software, networking equipment and computer peripherals, and general office supplies and furniture. CDW Government sells products through its Web site and catalogs and through a direct sales force.

Founded in 1973, A & E Stores also owns Rugby Realty, a real estate investment firm. Working women who have never heard of A & E Stores are more likely to be familiar with its Strawberry and Bolton's retail apparel chains. The company operates about 30 Bolton's and 25 Strawberry stores that sell junior and women's career and casual apparel, shoes, and accessories. The stores are concentrated in prime office districts in Manhattan and elsewhere in New York City. A & E's third chain, Pay/Half, operates some 45 discount family clothing stores in about a half dozen northeastern states and the Chicago area.

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;

Founder and president Bill Meadows began his business in the mid-1960s by growing produce and selling it on roadsides. He incorporated Meadow Farms as a nursery in 1974 and discontinued his produce business. Meadows Farms can help turn your lawn into something more like a meadow, if that's what you want. The company operates about two dozen nurseries in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. The nurseries sell plants, garden tools and accessories, gifts, housewares, seeds, soils, and other garden related merchandise. The company also offers landscaping and ground maintenance services. Meadows Farms also includes the Meadows Farms Golf Course, which features the Longest Hole in the US at 841 yards.

Homeland still has struggled as a result of stiff competition from Wal-Mart and other rival chains.Shoppers who call Oklahoma home shop at Homeland Stores' supermarkets. The regional grocery chain, a division of grocery distributorAssociated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), operates more than 45 stores throughout Oklahoma and a single store in Kansas. AWG operates Homeland stores through its Associated Retail Grocers subsidiary and supplies the majority of the products sold in Homeland stores. The stores sell groceries and general merchandise; most have delicatessens, pharmacies, and some have specialty departments (ethnic foods, floral services, seafood).

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