Costcutter Supermarkets Group owns or franchises some 1,600 supermarkets and convenience stores under the Costcutter and Costcutter Express banners throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. Smaller Costcutter Express stores (averaging about 1,000 sq. ft.) sell gasoline. Costcutter holds about a 4.6% share of the rapidly-consolidating convenience store market. The company had agreed to merge with Nisa-Today's, a buying group of some 700 independent retailers, but the deal collapsed. (Costcutter is the largest member of the Nisa-Today's buying group.) Founded in 1986 by its Chairman Colin Graves, Costcutter is owned by the Bibby Line Group.

Boyles Distinctive Furniture sells home furnishings through five locations, including a clearance outlet, in North Carolina and online. Customers can buy traditional wood, leather, and upholstered pieces from manufacturers such as Bernhardt, Hooker Furniture, Maitland-Smith, and Ralph Lauren. The company offers interior design support and nationwide delivery service. Internet shoppers can chat with store reps and get a quote via the retailer's Web site. Boyles' showrooms are distinctive as well, ranging from glass-fronted modern stores to shaker-style buildings. Founded in 1949, the company is part of the Hendricks Furniture Group, which filed for Chapter 11 in 2009.

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;

Founded in 1960, Pacific Sales became a subsidiary of retail giant Best Buy in 2006. Pacific Sales fills its sails with Pacific breezes and kitchen appliances. Its Kitchen and Bath Centers offer high-end kitchen appliances, plumbing fixtures, and home entertainment systems through about 35 stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada. Brands include ASKO, Electrolux, Kohler, Sony, TOTO, Viking, and Yamaha. The company's showroom stores are open to the public as well as to builders, contractors, and designers, and they feature a special department for multi-unit projects. Pacific Sales also offers installation and repair services.

RaceTrac Petroleum hopes it's a popular pit stop for gasoline and snacks in the Southeast. The company owns some 545 gas stations and convenience stores in about a dozen states under the RaceTrac and RaceWay names. (RaceWay stores are operated by independent contractors.) The chain plans to grow by expanding its store count by about 10% a year. Carl Bolch founded RaceTrac in Missouri in 1934. His son, chairman and CEO Carl Bolch Jr., moved the company into high-volume gas stations with long, self-service islands that can serve as many as two dozen vehicles at one time. RaceTrac's convenience stores sell fresh deli food and offer some fast-food fare. The Bolch family owns the company.

The Jones Group Inc. engages in the design, marketing, and wholesale of apparel, footwear, and accessories in the United States and Canada. Its products include skirts, blouses, pants, jackets, sweaters, jeanswear, suits, dresses, casual tops, outerwear, shorts, and vests for women’s, juniors, and girls market. The company also sells footwear, handbags, and small leather goods, as well as costume, semiprecious, sterling silver, and marcasite jewelry. It markets its products under various brands, including Jones New York, Nine West, Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Kasper, Bandolino, Easy Spirit, Evan-Picone, l.e.i., Energie, Enzo Angiolini, Joan & David, Mootsies Tootsies, Sam & Libby, Napier, Judith Jack, Albert Nipon, and Le Suit. The Jones Group also markets costume jewelry under the ‘Givenchy’ brand licensed from Givenchy Corporation, and footwear under the Dockers and Dockers brand licensed from Levi Strauss & Co. In addition, Jones Group licenses its brand names to manufacturers and distributors of women’s and men’s apparel and accessories products. The Jones Group sells its products through specialty and department stores, and mass merchandisers, as well as through company-owned network of retail and factory outlet stores, and e-commerce Websites. As of December 31, 2009, it operated 321 specialty retail and 617 outlet stores. The Jones Group was formerly known as Jones Apparel Group, Inc. and changed its name to The Jones Group Inc. on October 18, 2010. The Jones Group Inc. was founded in 1975 and is based in New York, New York.

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.

From 1946 to 1974, the Skogen family acquired a number of small IGA stores and eventually, in 1979, a Red Owl store in Holmen, Wisconsin. Paul Skogen passed away in 1976 at which point his son Dave, along Dave’s wife Barb, oversaw company operations.In 1990, the Skogen family realized a shifting trend in consumer buying habits and decided a change of store format was best for future growth of the company. On June 28, 1990, they opened their first Festival Foods store in Onalaska. In 1992 Dave’s son Mark joined the company full-time. Together, Dave and Mark lead Festival Foods to experience unprecedented growth by opening additional stores across Wisconsin in Marshfield, Green Bay, Bellevue, De Pere, Suamico, Oshkosh, Eau Claire, and Holmen.Dave transitioned to Chairman of the Board in 2006 and continues to be active in the company. With that change, Mark became CEO and President and has carried on the tradition of success built by his father and grandfather. Since 2006, Festival has opened stores in La Crosse, Appleton Darboy, Appleton Northland, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc and Suamico.

KF - The Swedish Cooperative Union, is a federation of 47 consumer cooperative societies in Sweden, with over 3 million individual members. KF is the parent company of KF Group where Coop's grocery retail trade constitutes its core business. Coop operates grocery retail shops in chains like Coop Forum, Coop Extra, Coop Konsum and Coop Nära. Together with the retail consumer cooperative societies, Coop accounts for 21.5 percent of the entire Swedish grocery retail sector. The KF Group is also home to a number of companies within different business sectors as well as companies offering internal services. The subsidiaries include, amongst others, KF Fastigheter (real estate business), Akademibokhandeln with its online bookstore Bokus, Norstedts publishing group, PAN Vision Group (distribution of films and digital games), Vi Magazine, KF Invest and Vår Gård Saltsjöbaden (conference facility).

PPR has transformed itself from a conglomerate to the world's third-largest luxury group (behind LVMH and Richemont). PPR's stable of global luxury brands includes a 99% stake in Italian luxury goods company Gucci Group, and luxury brands Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Stella McCartney, and Yves Saint Laurent, among others. The group's other activities include the multichannel merchant Redcats, Fnac music and book stores, the Conforama chain of household furniture and appliance stores, and the German athletic shoemaker PUMA. More than half of PPR's sales are generated outside of its home country. PPR is run by Francois-Henri Pinault, the son of its founder Francois Pinault.

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