Recreation is serious business for Affinity Group. The direct marketing firm sells goods and services through its membership and discount buyers clubs, such as Good Sam, Coast to Coast Resorts, Camp Club USA, and President's Club. It offers RV products (including air conditioners, sanitation systems, furnishings) not usually found in general merchandise stores at about 80 Camping World specialty shops across the US, as well as via catalog and online. Affinity also publishes magazines and travel guides, from which it derives subscription fees and ad sales revenue. Chairman Steve Adams is the majority owner of both Affinity and, through another entity, RV retailer FreedomRoads.

Before Old Navy, there was the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM). Active-duty military personnel, reservists, retirees, and their family members can shop and gas up at more than 100 NEXCOM retail stores (brand-name and private-label merchandise ranging from apparel to home electronics), more than 155 NEXCOM Ships Stores (basic necessities), and its 100-plus Uniform Support Centers (the sole source of authorized uniforms). NEXCOM also runs about 40 Navy Lodges (motels) in the US and about half a dozen foreign countries. NEXCOM receives tax dollars for its shipboard stores, but it is otherwise self-supporting. Most of the profits fund morale, welfare, and recreational programs (MWR) for sailors.

LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention helps to spread the teachings of Jesus. The company is a not-for-profit Christian publisher; it also sells Bibles and other good books, CDs, gifts, software, church furniture, signs, and other supplies through more than 150 LifeWay Christian Stores in about 25 US states, online, and through its catalog. In addition, LifeWay operates two of the nation's largest Christian conference facilities (and summer camps). LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina and LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center in New Mexico together welcome about 2,000 conference and overnight guests per year. LifeWay was founded in 1891 by Dr. J.M. Frost.

Hong Kong-based Chow Sang Sang has its eye on China and the growing luxury market there. The company operates about 155 Chow Sang Sang jewelery stores in some 60 cities across mainland China, with another 50-plus stores in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. The fast-growing jeweler aims to open another 50 shops in the near future. The company makes and sells necklaces, bracelets, watches, diamonds, and other shiny luxuries and trendy baubles. Chow Sang Sang has production facilities in China and in Hong Kong. It also wholesales precious metals (gold, platinum, and palladium) and brokers stocks and commodities. Chairman Kwen Lim Chow and general manager Wing Shing Chow together own about a third of the company.

Seaman and sail maker Thomas Black founded Blacks in 1861, when he offered his sails for sale. From there, the company moved on to tents, eventually offering camping gear and sporting goods. Now Blacks Leisure Group (BLG) sells outdoor gear and apparel through more than 300 stores throughout the UK and Ireland under the Blacks, Freespirit, and Millets banners. With 200-plus stores, Millets is the UK's largest outdoor retailer. The smaller Blacks chain sells North Face, Merrell, and Coleman brand merchandise and its owns brands from about 90 shops. BLG has been closing stores in its boardwear chain Freespirit, which now operates only about a dozen locations. Rival Sports Direct owns about 28% of BLG.

Tejas Office Products, founded in 1962, is owned by the Fraga family. Houston-based Tejas Office Products distributes office products throughout the US. Tejas Office Products, Inc. offers a huge portfolio of products from such manufacturers as 3M, Crayola (formerly Binney & Smith), Imation, Fellowes, Hewlett Packard, and Nu-Kote International. Tejas Office Products sells more than 10,000 items including furniture, paper products, desk supplies, computer accessories, and office electronics. Tejas Office Products, Inc. distributes its goods from a 25,999-sq.-ft. warehouse located in the downtown area.

Founded in 1932, the firm is majority owned by private equity firm The Carlyle Group. Brentwood Associates owns about a 25% stake. Oriental Trading Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010 and is reorganizing. Party planners don't have to travel to stock up at Oriental Trading Company. The company sells more than 30,000 products, including party supplies, toys and novelties, arts and crafts, and home decor through its websites and catalogs. It mails about 300 million copies of its seasonal catalogs, which include such titles as Oriental Trading Company, Terry's Village, Crafts, Hands on Fun, and Inspirations. Oriental Trading supplies carnivals, schools, churches, nonprofits, and businesses.

Shelton-Keller Group, Inc. company has furnished airport waiting areas, call centers, outdoor dining space, and large college libraries and has contracts with the state of Texas and several US municipalities. The people at Shelton-Keller Group are cube city architects. The company plans, designs, installs, maintains, and repairs office furniture systems including tables, desk, shelving, cases, and executive office accoutrements. Most of the company's salesmen have backgrounds in interior design or architecture; Shelton-Keller makes a good deal of its revenue from designing, planning, and reconfiguring office plans. Its hip, high-end designer brands include Knoll, Bretford, Thonet, and Vitra.

Academy is near the head of the class among sporting goods retailers. It is one of the leading full-line sporting goods chains in the US with about 120 Academy Sports + Outdoors stores in Texas and some 10 other states in the Southeast. Academy's low-frills stores carry clothing, shoes, and equipment for almost any sport and outdoor activity, including camping, golf, hunting, fishing, and boating. The company, which also operates a catalog and e-commerce site, dates back to a San Antonio tire shop opened by Max Gochman in 1938. The business moved into military surplus items and during the 1980s began focusing on sports and outdoor goods. The Gochman family still owns Academy and is run by CEO David Gochman.

WH Smith PLC (known simply as "WHSmith") is one of the UK's largest book and magazine sellers. Its more than 570 high street stores sell reading materials, stationery, and movies. WHSmith also runs more than 515 travel shops in London and regional airports, railway stations, hospitals, and motorway service areas that offer selected newspapers, magazines, tobacco, and confectionery. Additionally, it operates the Internet site WHSmith Direct (the UK's second-largest online bookseller behind Amazon), and its Smiths News wholesale business is the largest magazine and newspaper distributor in the UK, supplying about 23,000 retailers daily.

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