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.

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.

MyOfficeProducts company provides more than 35,000 office products, including supplies (paper, desk organizers), furniture (chairs, lighting), and technology (printers, computer accessories). MyOfficeProducts also offers an eco-friendly product line with recycled paper, garbage containers, folders, and other items. MyOfficeProducts operates more than 80 sales offices and distribution centers across the US and Canada. The company, which has more than 100 local sales associates, provides a variety of rebates and gift certificates with some of its purchases.

Tattered Cover Book Store, an independent seller of new books in Denver. Tattered Cover stocks some half a million titles in three locations: inside the Lowenstein Theater on Colfax Avenue, historic lower downtown (LoDo) Denver, and suburb Highlands Ranch. Each store encourages customers to linger by offering overstuffed chairs and reading lamps. Tattered Cover attracts customers with activities such as book groups for adults and children and author readings and signings. The company was founded by owner and CEO Joyce Meskis, a former librarian, in 1974.

Color Me Mine Enterprises brings out the Picasso in you. The company has some 150 franchise locations open or under development in about two dozen US states, as well as in Australia, France, Kuwait, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan. Customers can choose from more than 400 pieces of pottery and paint it on site, either solo or as part of a party package for birthdays, bridal showers, and other events. Color Me Mine To Go brings the pottery and paint to the party when you can't make it to the store. Some locations also offer workshops catering to students in kindergarten through sixth grades and home-school art certification.

ABS was founded in 1997 by president Craig Knouf. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ricoh Americas. When you think of business, what systems do you associate with it? Associated Business Systems (ABS) thinks of big gadgets. ABS sells and services high-tech office machines (such as printers, copiers, fax machines, and scanners) made by companies such as Ricoh, HP, and Kyocera Mita. Other products include archival and retrieval devices, network imaging systems, and supplies for all the machines on the sales floor. Associated Business Systems operates more than a dozen locations in Oregon and Washington, and it services about 35,000 copiers and printers in both states.

founded the company in 1964. The Koons family owns Koons Automotive.Wheelin' and dealin' on the Web, Jim Koons Automotive Companies sells new and used cars the old-fashioned way and through the Internet. Its more than 20 locations in the Washington, DC, area (Virginia and Maryland) offer cars made by Ford, GM, Toyota, and Volvo. Three locations specialize in used cars; the company also offers body work. Internet customers can obtain quotes, make appointments for parts and service, and access online coupons for oil changes and other services. CEO Jim Koons' father, John Koons Sr., the first auto dealer to enter the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Founded in 1946 by Bill and Roberta Zimmer, the family-owned chain is run by CEO Alan Zimmer. Lovers wishing to express the sparkle in their relationships might consider consulting Reeds Jewelers. Operating about 90 jewelry stores mainly in malls in 18 states from Texas to Delaware, Reeds offers diamond rings and jewelry, gold jewelry and chains, gemstone rings, watches, and other baubles. Though most operate under the Reeds Jewelers name, in malls where Reeds has already staked a claim, stores are called Mills Jewelers; Reeds also sells products via its Web site and catalog. Diamonds (mostly up to one carat in weight) and gems account for almost 60% of the firm's sales.

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.

Alvarez Lincoln-Mercury began when president Ramon Alvarez, the son of a family from Tijuana that founded Baja California's first airline, purchased floundering Riverside Lincoln-Mercury in 1996 and renamed it. Within months the dealership was at the top in sales for the region after tapping into the Hispanic market.As its name implies, Alvarez Lincoln-Mercury sells new Lincolns and Mercurys, but also high-end car make Jaguar through its dealership in Riverside, California. The dealership also sells many models of used cars. Its Web site lets visitors search inventory, price cars, arrange for a service appointment, order parts, and apply for financing.

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