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.

Beauty Brands, Inc. was founded in 1995 by Bob Bernstein, who remains CEO of the Beauty Brands organization. Beauty Brands has built a business that offers its customers one-stop shopping and nonstop primping. The company combines its retail superstores (which measure between 5,000 and 9,000 sq. ft.) with full-service salons and spas. Beauty Brands operates more than 50 locations in about a dozen US states. In addition to selling more than 10,000 top salon products, Beauty Brands offers some 30 services including facials, haircuts and highlights, hair removal, manicures and pedicures, special occasion makeup and hair styling, children's hair cuts, and massage therapy.

Founded in 1898 as a rubber stamp company, W.B. Mason is one of the largest private office products dealers in the US. It operates about 20 showrooms, including five Whatta Bargain locations that carry furniture and business equipment, in some 10 northeastern states. The company also sells via its online catalog to its base of small and midsized businesses. A well-known entity on the East Coast, the firm stokes its "company next-door" image with old-fashioned ads on TV and in prominent places, such as Fenway Park's manual scoreboard. W.B. Mason is owned by members of senior management, including chairman Steve Greene and CEO Leo Meehan.

Dreams, Inc. company owns and operates about 20 Field of Dreams and FansEdge stores across the US -- in addition to some 10 franchised stores -- that sell signed balls, jerseys, photos, plaques, and other collectibles, which it licenses from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA, and NASCAR. It also reaches shoppers via the FansEdge catalog and online (including FansEdge.com and ProSportsMemorabilia.com). Dreams' Mounted Memories division makes and distributes sports memorabilia, while its Greene Organization handles special appearances, endorsements, and other off-field activities for athletes.

Keyboard Concepts sells high quality traditional, digital, and disk player pianos, as well as sheet music, software, and accessories from brands such as Pearl River, Schimmel, Steinway, and Yamaha. Customers range from professional musicians to casual players, teachers and tuners. It has five retail locations (including two superstores and one David L. Abell Fine Pianos) and two warehouses in southern California. Keyboard Concepts also buys and restores used pianos, offers rent-to-own pianos, and works with interior designers in search of decorative pianos. The company was founded by president Dennis Hagerty in 1983.

Hannoush Jewelers is a company whose philosophy has always been one of family ownership and personal attention to detail. Under the careful guidance of the Hannoush Family, the first Hannoush Jewelers retail store opened its doors in Massachusetts in 1980. Today the Hannoush Jewelers network includes: More than 70 company owned and franchised locations throughout the United States. Over 600 professionally trained employees with skills ranging from fine jewelry design, casting and settings to expert purchase advise and retail management. A commitment to conduct business with integrity and respect for the customer. The Hannoush Philosophy Trust. The fine reputation that Hannoush Jewelers has built over the years for low cost and high quality begins at the source. Our own master craftspeople design and cast our settings, and create almost all of the diamond and gemstone jewelry that is offered in our stores, The design and manufacturing of our jewelry takes place at Hannoush Jewelers facilities in New England and Canada.

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.

Blackwell UK (known as Blackwell's) operates about 50 bookshops throughout the UK under the Blackwell's and Heffers names, as well as Blackwell's Online Bookshop. Blackwell's Book Services (headquartered in the US, with offices in the UK) supplies books and bibliographic products to some 3,500 research, academic, and specialty libraries around the world. The original B.H. Blackwell's store was opened in Oxford on New Year's Day 1879, and today it is one of the company's flagship locations. The Blackwell family still owns and runs Blackwell's. The family also owns academic publisher Blackwell Publishing.

Levenger began when Lori Granger Leveen and her husband, Steve, said: "Let there be lighting!" The company, which got its start in 1987 by selling halogen lights for reading, has fashioned itself into the provider of "Tools for Serious Readers." The direct marketer offers an assortment of branded and private-label home and office accessories and furniture. Its products include bookcases, briefcases, leather armchairs, lap desks, inkwells, pens, pillows, stationery, and of course, lighting products. Levenger (which derives its name from combining Leveen and Granger) sells its merchandise through its catalog, website, and retail stores in Boston; Chicago; Boca Raton, Florida; and the Washington, DC, area.

Sensational Beginnings (SB) helps kids start having fun early. The catalog and online merchant sells educational toys, furniture, and safety and child care items for infants and toddlers. (SB also operates a single store in Michigan.) Toy categories include science and nature, ride-ons, musical instruments, indoor active play, travel kits, and seasonal items. SB also offers gift-giving and parenting advice, a gift registry, and an online photo gallery of children using company products. Customers can shop by brand, category, or age group or get advice on age-appropriate toys and games. President Debra Shah, a former nurse specializing in mother and child medical care, founded Sensational Beginnings, Inc. in the early 1990s.

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