Gate Petroleum company runs a chain of about 225 Gate Food Post stores in six Southeastern states, including Florida and the Carolinas, that sell gas and groceries and offer fleet management services. The firm is also a wholesale fuel distributor to customers throughout the Southeast. The company is also active in the real estate and construction materials businesses. In Florida Gate owns several private clubs, office buildings, and business parks. Subsidiary Gate Concrete has plants in about half a dozen states that make and sell concrete and building materials. CEO Herbert Peyton, who founded the company in 1960, owns the majority of Gate Petroleum.

Allied Refrigeration Inc. was founded in 1912 by L.B. Marsh and Frank Sarson. Marsh's nephew, Bob Nichols (chairman), and his sons, including CEO Rob, run and own Allied Refrigeration. What does it take to cool Southern California and Las Vegas? Allied Refrigeration probably knows. Through some 15 locations in California and Las Vegas, Allied Refrigeration distributes air conditioning, ventilation, heating, and refrigeration parts, equipment, and controls. Its 30,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Long Beach keeps branches supplied with more than 9,000 items from major manufacturers, including Honeywell, Heatcraft, Maglite, Tyco Thermal Controls, and Fluke.

ACO Hardware, Inc. Founded in 1946 by Ted Traskos and his four brothers, ACO Hardware is still owned by the Traskos family. ACO Hardware can provide both the food and the supplies if you want to get your floor clean enough to eat off. The company's outlets sell automotive supplies, electrical goods, food and beverages, hardware, housewares, paint, lawn and garden necessities, patio furniture, and tools. It also rents equipment for carpet cleaning, plumbing, and home maintenance. ACO Hardware operates about 70 stores in southeastern Michigan, primarily in the Detroit area. Customers can view weekly specials and find hardware tips on the company's Web site.

DOTS has plans for continued national expansion, including California eventually. Ultimately, DOTS hopes to reach 1,000 stores nationwide. DOTS operates more than 400 value-priced women's clothing and accessory stores in some 25 states, mostly along the East Coast and in the Midwest. The stores, which target female shoppers between the ages of 18 and 45, sell low-priced fashion apparel and accessories for the junior, misses, and plus-size markets. The fast-growing company has been opening new stores in some big markets, including Texas and Georgia.

White Flower Farm, founded in 1950, is owned by CEO Eliot Wadsworth who purchased it from founder William Harris in 1976. Harris and his wife Jane Grant, both successful journalists before taking the gardening path, founded the nursery. White Flower Farms has a lot of colors on its palette. Through catalogs and its Web site, White Flower Farm sells a wide range of annuals, bulbs, houseplants, perennials, shrubs and vines, and vegetables that it grows in its own nursery. White Flower Farm, Inc. also offers tools, gifts, garden accessories, and tips for making the garden grow. A retail store at the nursery is open from April to October. White Flower Farm, Inc. maintains five acres of display gardens open to the public.

Wolff Bros. Supply keeps the heat and the cold from the door. Through 10 locations in Ohio, Wolff Bros. Supply distributes wholesale cabinets, lighting, tools, and equipment and supplies for telecommunications, electrical power, HVAC, and plumbing. The business gets its tools and equipment from more than 500 vendors and has more than 25,000 products in stock. The family-owned company traces its roots back to the 1950s, when Norman and Harold Wolff began operating an electrical, plumbing, and heating contracting business out of the back of a truck.

The Officers Club wants its customers to feel more like gentlemen, even if they aren't dressed that way. The company is a discount retailer of men's apparel, including such products as jeanswear, jackets, leatherwear, shoes and accessories, and office attire. Operating under the names The Officers Club, Petroleum Casualwear, and Blakes Menswear, the company has about 150 stores around the UK and sells merchandise through its Web site. The Officers Club recently faced allegations of misleading advertising by Britain's Office of Fair Trading. A pared-down version of the chain remains operational after CEO David Charlton purchased the majority of its assets from administrators in early 2009.

Super Warehouse was founded by CEO Russell Schneider in 1997. Super Warehouse may not be faster than a speeding bullet, but it does deliver computers and computer equipment pretty quickly. The privately-held company is a direct online retailer and reseller of more than 50,000 brand-name products -- PCs, notebooks, hardware, software, audio-visual equipment, and peripherals -- from leading manufacturers, such as Apple, Cisco, IBM, Canon, and Xerox, among others. It ships from about 15 warehouse locations throughout the US, usually within 1 to 2 days. Its primary customers include businesses, educational organizations, and government agencies.

There might be a trip to Best Buy for some CDs or a television in your future. Best Buy Canada operates about 210 consumer electronics superstores under the three brands: Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, and Future Shop. The retail outlets offer televisions, computers, and DVD players, as well as cameras, CDs, DVDs, mobile phones, and software. In addition the Future Shop stores, which average 26,700 square feet and are smaller than Best Buy Canada locations, offer home appliances, office supplies, and maintenance services. Best Buy Canada also offers customers in-home and commercial technical support through its Geek Squad services unit. US-based retail giant Best Buy acquired the Future Shop chain in 2002.

Saks Fifth Avenue, Inc was began as Proffitt’s, Inc. with just five Proffitt’s stores in metropolitan Knoxville, Tennessee. Proffitt's, Inc. became a public company in June 1987. From 1994 to 1998, we added McRae’s, Parisian, Younkers, Herberger's, and Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (which included Bergner's and Boston Store) as well as 32 additional stores from Lovemans, Hess, Parks-Belk, and Brody’s, which were converted into existing store nameplates.

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