AutoZone, Inc. is an American retailer of aftermarket automotive parts and accessories, the largest in the United States.[1] Founded in 1979, AutoZone has over 6,000 stores across the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. The company is based in Memphis, Tennessee.

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.

Casey’s General Stores, Inc. is a chain of convenience stores in the Midwestern United States. The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines.[2] As of April 30, 2019, Casey’s had 2,146 stores in 16 states. In 1959, Donald Lamberti leased a service station in Des Moines, Iowa, from his father. After successfully remodeling the station into a convenience store and operating it for nine years, his gasoline supplier and friend, Kurvin C. (K.C.) Fish, suggested that he purchase the Square Deal Oil Company, a service station available for sale in Boone, Iowa. Lamberti followed Fish’s advice and purchased the station, which he renamed “Casey’s” after Fish and as with his leased store converted the station into a convenience store. The logo on the Boone store is the same logo used today by the Casey’s chain. The Boone store (located in a town of only 12,500) did well, so Lamberti decided to see if he could duplicate his success. He built another store in Creston, Iowa (population 7,000) and that store did well also. Lamberti became more ambitious and decided to open a store from scratch in the even smaller town of Waukee, Iowa (population 1,500 at the time). The Waukee store proved to be the most successful of the three, so Lamberti decided to purchase and open more stores, concentrating on towns of less than 5,000 population (a variation on the tactic used in the early success of Wal-Mart).

Dollar General Corporation is an American chain of variety stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of July 2018, Dollar General operates 15,000 stores[4][1] in the continental United States.[5] The company began in 1939 as a family-owned business called J.L. Turner and Son in Scottsville, Kentucky, owned by James Luther Turner and Cal Turner. In 1955, the name changed to Dollar General Corporation and in 1968 the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Fortune 500 recognized Dollar General in 1999 and in 2018 reached #123.[6] Dollar General has grown to become one of the most profitable stores in the rural United States with revenue reaching around $21 billion in 2017.

GameStop Corporation is an American video game, consumer electronics and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas, United States, a suburb of Dallas, and operates 5,830 retail stores throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. The company’s retail stores primarily operate under the GameStop, EB Games, ThinkGeek and Micromania brands. In addition to retail stores, GameStop also owns Game Informer, a video game magazine.

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.

L Brands, Inc. (formerly known as Limited Brands, Inc. and The Limited, Inc.) is an American fashion retailer based in Columbus, Ohio. Its flagship brands include Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. L Brands posted $12.63 billion in revenue in 2017, and was listed as 231 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of largest United States companies by revenue.

Nordstrom Inc. (/?n??rdstr?m/) is an American chain of luxury department stores, also operating in Canada and headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1901 by Swedish American John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin, the company began as a shoe retailer and expanded its inventory to include clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, and fragrances. Select Nordstrom stores also include wedding and home furnishings departments. The company also has in-house cafes, restaurants and espresso bars. Nordstrom, Inc.’s common stock is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol JWN.

OshKosh B’gosh is an American children’s apparel company founded in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 1895. It is a subsidiary of Carter’s. Originally a small-town manufacturer of adult work clothing, it has become best known for its children’s clothing, especially bibbed overalls. The original children’s overalls, dating from the early twentieth century, were intended to let parents dress their children like their fathers. According to the company, sales of the product increased after Miles Kimball, an Oshkosh-based mail-order catalog, featured a pair of the overalls in its national catalog in 1960. As a result, OshKosh began to sell their products through department stores and expanded their children’s line. Children’s clothing made up 15 percent of the company’s sales in 1979; by 1993 that number was 95 percent. An example Oshkosh shortalls in the train engineer’s style Oshkosh B’Gosh clothes are no longer made in Oshkosh. Downsizing of domestic operations and massive outsourcing and manufacturing at Mexican and Honduran subsidiaries saw the domestic manufacturing share drop below 10% by the year 2000. The company was sold to Carter’s, another clothing manufacturer in 2005 for $312 million, though it still operates under the original name. Today, the company sells accessories, jeans, pants, shirts, sweaters, t-shirts, tank tops, and its trademark overalls. The company produces clothing for babies, infants, toddlers, kids (4-7), and youth (5-14); however, it no longer manufactures clothing in adult sizes due to poor sales. The company also has over three hundred stores in the United States of America. The company now has its headquarters in Suite 1800 at Phipps Tower in Atlanta’s Buckhead district.

Sears Holdings Corporation (now referred to as “Old Sears”) is an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after Kmart purchased Sears in 2005;[7] it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018 and sold its assets to ESL Investments in 2019.[8] It was the 20th-largest retailing company in the United States in 2015. Sears, Roebuck and Company, colloquially known as Sears, is a chain of department stores founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in 1893, reincorporated (a formality for a history-making consumer sector initial public offering) by Richard Sears and new partner Julius Rosenwald in 1906. Formerly based at the Sears Tower in Chicago and currently headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, the operation began as a mail ordering catalog company and began opening retail locations in 1925. The first location was in Chicago, Illinois.[3] In 2005, the company was bought by the management of the American big box chain Kmart, which formed Sears Holdings upon completion of the merger. In the 1980s and earlier, Sears was the largest retailer in the United States until when Walmart and Kmart surpassed Sears in sales in 1990.[4] In 2018, Sears was the 31st-largest retailer in the United States.[5] After several years of declining sales, its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 15, 2018.[6] Sears announced on January 16, 2019 that it had won its bankruptcy auction and would shrink and remain open with 425 stores.