C. N. Brown company operates about 90 convenience stores under the Big Apple Food Stores banner, mostly in Maine but also in New Hampshire. The company provides heating oil, K-1, propane, and diesel gasoline through subsidiary Red Shield Heating Oil's more than 30 locations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. C. N. Brown also operates a handful of car washes in Maine. The family-owned and -operated company was founded in 1948 by Carlton Brown.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton is the world's largest luxury goods company, with brands that are bywords for the good life and everything showy. LVMH makes wines and spirits (Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, and Hennessy), perfumes (Christian Dior, Guerlain, and Givenchy), cosmetics (Bliss, Fresh, and BeneFit), fashion and leather goods (Donna Karan, Givenchy, Kenzo, and Louis Vuitton), and watches and jewelry (TAG Heuer, Ebel, Chaumet, and Fred). LVMH's selective retail division includes Sephora cosmetics stores, Le Bon Marche Paris department stores, and 61% of DFS Group (duty-free shops). Chairman Bernard Arnault and his family, through Groupe Arnault, own about 47% of LVMH.

Formerly named Hardware Wholesalers, Do it Best was founded in 1945. If you're building a house or fixing one up, you might as well Do it Best -- at least that's the hope of one of the hardware industry's largest cooperatives. Do it Best boasts more than 4,100 member-owned stores in 45-plus countries worldwide, but primarily the US. Besides the usual tools and building materials, merchandise includes automotive items, bicycles, camping gear, housewares, office supplies, and small appliances. Customers can also have products specially shipped to their local stores through Do it Best's e-commerce site. The co-op's buying power enables members to offer items at competitive prices.

Fred Meyer Stores went out for groceries and wound up in Kroger's cart. Freddy's -- as the chain is known -- is a supercenter pioneer providing food and general merchandise to cost-conscious consumers in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. One of the largest supercenter operators in the US (along with Wal-Mart and Costco Wholesale), Fred Meyer's more than 125 multidepartment stores (averaging 155,000 sq. ft.) offer everything from apparel and home goods to groceries, consumer electronics, fuel, and jewelry. Its Web store delivers to the Alaska Bush. Kroger has leveraged Fred Meyer's general merchandising expertise as defense against Wal-Mart, which has overtaken Kroger as the #1 seller of groceries in the US.

Founded in 1945, the company is owned by the family of president Steve Cook. Northeastern Supply keeps its little corner of the world cozy. Through about 30 locations in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, the company distributes air conditioning, heating, plumbing, ventilation, and water system equipment along with fixtures and hardware to contractors and other building professionals. Major suppliers include American Standard, Bradford White, Delta, Elkay, Jacuzzi, and Moen. Northeastern also offers online credit applications, electronic funds transfers, and e-mail invoicing to its customers.

In Germany a trip to the corner drugstore is often a trip to Anton Schlecker. Fa. Anton Schlecker company is Germany's largest drugstore operator with about 10,650 discount retail outlets there. It also operates another 3,300 stores in about a dozen countries in Europe, including Austria, France, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Schlecker stores stock more than 4,000 product lines, including branded and private-label items. The shops also feature over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, baby products, tobacco, photo services, and more. It is owned by German billionaire Anton Schlecker, who opened his first drugstore in 1975.

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.

Charlotte Russe Holding is sweet on women's clothing. The mall-based retailer operates about 500 Charlotte Russe clothing stores in some 45 US states and Puerto Rico. The stores (averaging 7,100 sq. ft.) offer value-priced established and trendy fashions for women in their twenties and teens. Most merchandise carries the company's proprietary labels (Charlotte Russe, Refuge, and blu Chic). Charlotte Russe Holding company shut down its struggling 64-store Rampage chain in 2006, converting several locations to Charlotte Russe stores. Charlotte Russe Holding went public in 1999. Charlotte Russe Holding was taken private in 2009, when investment firm Advent International acquired Charlotte Russe.

The Gap, Inc. operates as a specialty retailing company. The company offers clothing, accessories, and personal care products for men, women, children, and babies under the Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Piperlime, and Athleta brand names. Its products include wardrobe basics, such as denim, khakis, and T-shirts; fashion apparel; casual apparel and accessories; maternity apparel; women’s underwear, sleepwear, loungewear, and sports and active apparel; and shoes and accessories. The company also franchises agreements with unaffiliated franchisees to operate Gap and Banana Republic stores worldwide. As of March 24, 2010, it operated approximately 3,100 stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Japan, and Ireland. The Gap also offers its products through catalogs, as well as gap.com, bananarepublic.com, oldnavy.com, piperlime.com, and athleta.com Web sites. The Gap, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is based in San Francisco, California.

The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. operates as a children's specialty apparel retailer in North America. The company provides apparel and related accessories for children from newborn to 10 years of age. It designs, contracts to manufacture, and sells apparel and accessories and other children's-oriented merchandise under The Children's Place brand name. The company has differentiated departments to serve the needs of girls and boys, baby girls and boys, and new born. As of January 30, 2010, it owned and operated 947 The Children's Place stores and an online store at childrensplace.com. The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is based in Secaucus, New Jersey.

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