WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids and various others. The company was founded in 1948; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area.
Hamleys of London Limited, trading as Hamleys, is a British multinational toy retailer, owned by Reliance Retail. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest toy store, it was founded by William Hamley as "Noah's Ark" in High Holborn, London, in 1760. It moved to its current site on Regent Street in London's West End in 1881. This flagship store is set over seven floors, with more than 50,000 lines of toys on sale. It receives around five million visitors each year.
HMV is a British music and entertainment retailer, founded in 1921. The brand is owned by JD Sports and operated by Sunrise Records, except in Japan, where it is owned and operated by Lawson.
Argos Limited is a British retailer operating in the United Kingdom online and through catalogues, and formerly in Ireland; it was acquired by Sainsbury's supermarket chain in 2016. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.
Habitat is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group.
Sprucefield is a major out-of-town retail park in the townland of Magherageery, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the southern edge of Lisburn; about one mile from Lisburn city centre, and ten miles (16 km) from central Belfast. Sprucefield is located beside the M1 motorway and the A1 road. It is split in two parts: the Sprucefield Centre and Sprucefield Park.
The Toy Retailers Association is a trade association that represents its members in the UK & Ireland. It promotes the role of the toy retailer and the value of toys to the consumer. It represents about 75% of the toy trade. The directorate is based remotely in Bodmin, Cornwall.
Golden Discs, officially Golden Disc Group Ltd., is Ireland's largest and oldest home-entertainment specialist retail chain.
John Lewis & Partners, commonly known as John Lewis, is a British chain of high-end department stores operating across the United Kingdom, with concessions in Ireland. It is part of the John Lewis Partnership plc, a holding company held in a trust on behalf of its employees as the beneficiaries of the trust. The brand was established in 1929 by Spedan Lewis, son of the founder, John Lewis.
Poundland Limited is a British variety store chain founded in 1990. It once sold most items at the single price of £1, including clearance items and proprietary brands. The first pilot store opened in December 1990 following numerous rejections by landlords who had reservations about allowing a single-price store to operate, fearing it could adversely affect the local competition. An estimated 7 million customers shopped in Poundland every week in 2016, many being female shoppers in the C1, C2, D and E categories. Following a drop in share price of over 50%, Poundland was acquired in August 2016 by Steinhoff International for £610 million.
CDS Limited is a multi-channel retailer selling products in the home, garden, and leisure categories, with over 210 stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It owns Homebase and Wilko, and is owned by Norton Group Holdings.
Screwfix Direct Limited, trading as Screwfix, is a retailer of trade tools, accessories and hardware products based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 as the Woodscrew Supply Company, the company was acquired in July 1999 by Kingfisher plc, which also owns B&Q, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Menarys is a Northern Ireland-based department store, operating twenty stores under their own name, as well as eleven stores under the 'Tempest' brand and an online store which launched in May 2010. Their head office is in Moygashel, Dungannon.
Woolworths (Ireland) was a retail chain that operated on the island of Ireland. Woolworths had operated stores in the Republic of Ireland until 1984, while stores in Northern Ireland became fully part of F. W. Woolworth plc and these stores lasted until 2009 when the Woolworths Group fell into administration. The defunct brand then being owned by The Very Group.
The Entertainer (Amersham) Limited is a British toy retailer, founded in 1981 by Catherine and Gary Grant. It is based in Amersham, the town of its first location.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen is a Danish variety store chain. Its first shop opened in Copenhagen in 1995 and the chain now has nearly 1000 shops. Its largest markets are Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Spain. Before June 2016, it operated as Tiger in most markets, as TGR in Sweden and Norway and as Flying Tiger Copenhagen in Ireland, Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The chain sells a variety of items, mostly accessories and toys. According to the company's founder, the company had about 39 million customers in 2014. Tiger takes its name from how the Danish pronunciation of the animal name tiger sounds roughly the same as the Danish word tier, used to denote a 10 kroner coin; in the first stores in Denmark, all items cost 10 kroner.
JoJo Maman Bébé is a multi-channel maternity wear and baby clothing retailer with stores in the United Kingdom. Founded as a mail-order seller in 1993, it was acquired in 2022 by Next and an investment group.
The retail format influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are exchanged. In some parts of the world, the retail sector is still dominated by small family-run stores, but large retail chains are increasingly dominating the sector, because they can exert considerable buying power and pass on the savings in the form of lower prices. Many of these large retail chains also produce their own private labels which compete alongside manufacturer brands. Considerable consolidation of retail stores has changed the retail landscape, transferring power away from wholesalers and into the hands of the large retail chains.
Toys "R" Us is a British retailer owned by WHP Global. It was founded by its U.S. counterpart in 1984, but in 2018, the retailer closed all locations but was later revived in 2021, eventually leading to physical Toys "R" Us concessions opening in WHSmith stores.
