Retailing giant Daimaru Matsuzakaya opened for business Monday, bringing to fruition the 2007 mega-merger between department store chains Daimaru Inc. and Matsuzakaya Bargain hunt: Shoppers flock for bargains at the Matsuzakaya department store in Tokyo's Ueno district Monday as the merged Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores Co. began operations. KYODO PHOTOThe new chain, which combined under holding firm J. Front Retailing Co., will take over strategic planning and product procurement duties from J. Front to save costs amid the current deflation.

Williams-Sonoma, Inc. operates as a specialty retailer of home products. It offers culinary and serving equipment, including cookware, cookbooks, cutlery, informal dinnerware, glassware, table linens, specialty foods, and cooking ingredients; and bridal and gift items under the Williams-Sonoma brand name. The company also provides home furnishing categories, including furniture, textiles, decorative accessories, lighting, and tabletop items under West Elm brand; bed and bath products under Pottery Barn brand; and children’s furnishings and accessories under Pottery Barn Kids brand name. Williams-Sonoma, Inc. sells its home products through five retail store concepts, which include Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm, and Williams-Sonoma Home; seven direct-mail catalogs that comprise Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Bed and Bath, PBteen, West Elm, and Williams-Sonoma Home; and six e-commerce Websites, which consist of williams-sonoma.com, potterybarn.com, potterybarnkids.com, pbteen.com, westelm.com, and wshome.com. As of January 31, 2010, it operated 610 retail stores, including 259 Williams-Sonoma, 199 Pottery Barn, 87 Pottery Barn Kids, 36 West Elm, 11 Williams-Sonoma Home, and 18 Outlet stores located in 44 states of the United States; Washington, D.C.; Canada; and Puerto Rico. The company was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

REWE Group other businesses include about 2,500 travel agencies, several tour operators, and foodservice. Founded in 1927, REWE is a cooperative owned by some 3,000 of its independent retail members.REWE Group sells the fuel that Germans love best food and drink. REWE is the third-largest food retailer in Germany (behind METRO AG and Lidl) and one of the largest in Europe overall. REWE operates more than 15,000 stores in some 15 European countries (about 10,900 in Germany), including Russia and Ukraine. Store formats include supermarkets (REWE), hypermarkets (toom), discount stores (Penny), drugstores (BIPA), DIY stores (toom Baumarkt), and consumer electronics stores (ProMarkt), among others.

Dollar General's at ease with living off the crumbs of Wal-Mart. The retailer commands a chain of more than 9,000 discount stores in 35 states, primarily in the southern and eastern US, the Midwest, and the Southwest. Offering basic household items, such as cleaning supplies and health and beauty aids, as well as some apparel and food, it targets low-, middle-, and fixed-income shoppers. Stores are generally located in small towns off the radar of giant discounters. Its big-city stores (about 30% of its total) are situated in lower-income neighborhoods. Some 25% of its merchandise is priced at $1 or less. Two years after being taken private by affiliates of KKR and Goldman Sachs, the chain went public in 2009.

Ritz Interactive was founded by Chairman David Ritz and CEO Fred Lerner in 1999. It's separate from Ritz Camera Centers, which filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Ritz Interactive is all over the Web. The company, a network of e-commerce Web sites, sells digital cameras and photographic products, as well as marine, boating, and fishing gear, through e-retailers, including RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com, and BoatersWorld.com. The company also owns and operates a handful of content-based community portals, such as Photography.com and BoatingOnly.com. Its Ritz Interactive Big Print Gallery allows users to upload digital images, view images posted by other community members, and rate photos or post commentary.

QVC (its name stands for "quality, value, and convenience") offers about 1,150 items each week to TV-tied shopping addicts. Merchandise includes apparel, cosmetics, electronics, housewares, jewelry, and toys. It broadcasts 24 hours a day; viewers call in their orders to one of its five call centers. If you can't find what you're shopping for on the tube, it also sells online and through five outlet stores plus a full-line store at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The company also has shopping channels in Germany, Japan, and the UK. QVC is a subsidiary of Liberty Interactive Group, which is owned by Liberty Media.

Baltimore Door & Frame was founded in 1982. Baltimore Door & Frame is looking to have customers line up at its doorstep -- for its doors. The company makes and markets wood and metal doors, door frames, and related hardware accessories. Baltimore Door & Frame's inventory includes hollow metal doors and frames manufactured by Pioneer, detention doors, wood doors, exit devices, door closers, hinges, Schlage and other locks, door stops, and other goods. As part of its menu of services, the company also offers residential and commercial keying services.

Established in 1907, the Wing On Department Stores Group is one of the largest and best known retailers in Hong Kong with five outlets providing three hundred sixty thousand square feet of shopping space throughout the territory. After a century, Wing On has become a firmly established household name and a leader in the department store business in Hong Kong. Please come and visit us.

R.C. Willey Home Furnishings drives traffic by giving away some 600,000 hot dogs a year at about a dozen stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. Despite Sunday store closures and operations in only four states, R.C. Willey is one of the nation's largest furniture retailers. Its offerings include furniture (La-Z-Boy, Flexsteel), appliances (GE, Maytag), electronics (Sony, Panasonic), and flooring. The firm also sells mattresses (Serta, Spring Air, Simmons). In 1932 Rufus Call (R.C.) Willey sold appliances door-to-door; today the company he founded is run by his son-in-law, chairman Bill Child, and grandsons. Berkshire Hathaway purchased the company in 1995.

DSW Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a footwear specialty retailer in the United States. It offers dress, casual, and athletic footwear for women and men, as well as accessories, handbags, and hosiery. DSW Inc. also sells shoes and accessories through dsw.com. As of January 30, 2010, it operated 305 DSW shoe stores; and 356 leased shoe departments for other retailers. DSW Inc. was formerly known as Shonac Corporation and changed its name to DSW Inc. in February 2005. DSW Inc. was incorporated in 1969 and is based in Columbus, Ohio. As of January 31, 2009, DSW Inc. operated as a subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc.

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