Big Lots!, Inc. is an American retail company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with over 1,400 stores in 47 states. The Big Lots chain traces its history back to 1967 when Consolidated Stores Corporation was formed in Ohio by Sol Shenk. In 1982, Consolidated Stores Corp. opened its first closeout store, called Odd Lots, in Columbus, Ohio. In 1983, drug store chain Revco bought New Jersey closeout retailer Odd Lot Trading Co. As Consolidated’s Odd Lots stores expanded from Columbus, Revco took issue with the fact that another closeout retailer was operating a chain with national aspirations that had a similar name as the Revco-owned subsidiary. Consolidated Stores Corp. agreed to limit their use of the Odd Lots name to stores located within a certain radius of Columbus. Beyond the radius, Consolidated began opening stores under the Big Lots name. Eventually, all Odd Lots stores were rebranded as Big Lots. In 1985, Consolidated Stores Corp. began trading as a separate public company on the American Stock Exchange. In 1986, Consolidated Stores Corp. switched to the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol CNS.

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (stylized as JCPenney) is an American department store chain with 865 locations in 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. In addition to selling conventional merchandise, J. C. Penney stores often house several leased departments such as Sephora, Seattle’s Best Coffee, salons, auto centers, optical centers, portrait studios, and jewelry repair. Most J. C. Penney stores are located in suburban shopping malls. Before 1966, most of its stores were located in downtown areas. As shopping malls became more popular during the later half of the 20th century, J. C. Penney followed the trend by relocating and developing stores to anchor the malls. In more recent years, the chain has continued to follow consumer traffic, echoing the retailing trend of opening some freestanding stores, including some next door to competitors. Certain stores are located in power centers. The company has been an Internet retailer since 1998. It has streamlined its catalog and distribution while undergoing renovation improvements at store level.

Macy’s (originally R. H. Macy & Co., Stylized as macy’s) is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994 (later renamed as Macy’s, Inc. in 2007), as a Bloomingdale’s department store chain affiliate. As of 2015, Macy’s was the largest U.S. department store company by retail sales. As of February 2019, there were 584 full-line stores with the Macy’s nameplate in operation throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Guam. Macy’s Herald Square, at Herald Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, acts as the company’s flagship store. The company had 130,000 employees and earned annual revenue of $24.8 billion as of 2017.[1] Macy’s conducts the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City since 1924 and sponsors the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display since 1976. Macy’s Herald Square is one of the largest department stores in the world.[2] The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet of retail space, includes additional space for offices and storage, and serves as the endpoint for the Thanksgiving Day parade. The value of Herald Square estimates at around $3 billion.

Ross Stores, Inc., operating under the brand name Ross Dress for Less, is an American chain of discount department stores headquartered in Dublin, California.[2] It is the largest off-priced retailer in the U.S. As of 2018, Ross operates 1,483 stores in 37 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Guam,[3] covering much of the country, but with no presence in New England, New York, northern New Jersey, Alaska, and areas of the Midwest.[4] According to SEC filing, Ross’ target customers are primarily from middle income households.

Target Corporation is the eighth-largest retailer in the United States, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index.[3] Founded by George Dayton and headquartered in Minneapolis, the company was originally named Goodfellow Dry Goods in June 1902 before being renamed the Dayton’s Dry Goods Company in 1903 and later the Dayton Company in 1910. The first Target store opened in Roseville, Minnesota in 1962 while the parent company was renamed the Dayton Corporation in 1967. It became the Dayton-Hudson Corporation after merging with the J.L. Hudson Company in 1969 and held ownership of several department store chains including Dayton’s, Hudson’s, Marshall Field’s, and Mervyn’s. It is unrelated to Target Australia. Target established itself as the day time division of the Dayton-Hudson Corporation in the 1970s; it began expanding the store nationwide in the 1980s and introduced new store formats under the Target brand in the 1990s. The company has found success as a cheap-chic player in the industry.[4] The parent company was renamed the Target Corporation in 2000 and divested itself of its last department store chains in 2004. It suffered from a massive and highly publicized security breach of customer credit card data and the failure of its short-lived Target Canada subsidiary in the early 2010s but experienced revitalized success with its expansion in urban markets within the United States. As of May 26, 2019, Target operates 1,871[1] stores throughout the United States. The company is ranked No. 39 on the 2018 Fortune 600 list of the largest United States corporations buy total revenue.[5] Their retail formats include the discount store Target, the hypermarket SuperTarget, and “small-format” stores previously named CityTarget and TargetExpress before being consolidated under the Target branding. Target is often recognized for its emphasis on “the needs of its younger, image-conscious shoppers”, whereas its rival Walmart more heavily relies on its strategy of “always low prices”.

Walmart Inc. (formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31, 1969. It also owns and operates Sam’s Club retail warehouses. As of July 31, 2019, Walmart has 11,389 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 55 different names. The company operates under the name Walmart in the United States and Canada, as Walmart de México y Centroamérica in Mexico and Central America, as Asda in the United Kingdom, as the Seiyu Group in Japan, and as Best Price in India. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Chile, Canada, and South Africa. Since August 2018, Walmart only holds a minority stake in Walmart Brasil, which was renamed Grupo Big in August 2019, with 20 percent of the company’s shares, and private equity firm Advent International holding 80 percent ownership of the company. Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue, with US $514.405 billion, according to Fortune Global 500 list in 2019. It is also the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. Sam Walton’s heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through their holding company Walton Enterprises and through their individual holdings. Walmart was the largest U.S. grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart’s US $510.329 billion sales came from U.S. operations. Walmart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. By 1988, it was the most profitable retailer in the U.S., and it had become the largest in terms of revenue by October 1989. The company originally was geographically limited to the South and lower Midwest, but it had stores from coast to coast by the early 1990s. Sam’s Club opened in New Jersey in November 1989 and the first California outlet opened in Lancaster, California in July 1990. A Walmart in York, Pennsylvania opened in October 1990, the first main store in the Northeast. Walmart’s investments outside America have seen mixed results. Its operations and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Central America, South America and China are highly successful, whereas its ventures failed in Germany and South Korea.