Supermarket segment
The supermarket segment has five
representatives in the Hot 100, but none
are in the top quartile. As a group,
they posted a 17.2 percent year-to-year revenue rise,
led by A&P’s 19.2 percent boost
following its acquisition of
Pathmark Stores. The differential was enhanced
by A&P’s downsizing in the several quarters
preceding the combination of the two New
Jersey-based chains.
Rising food prices have helped all grocers’ top lines, and
SUPERVALU benefited from this, as well as from the inclusion of its
distribution business in total revenues for the first time this year.
Spartan Stores has shed its drug store chain and
also distributes to some independent grocers. Rounding out the hot
grocery segment are Ingles, a low-profile but well-respected operation
based in western North Carolina, and Whole Foods Markets, which is still
opening stores.
 Apparel stores are well represented
among the Hot 100 Retailers, with the
’tweens and teens category enjoying an
aggregate 13.3 percent
sales lift. Included in this group are chains
that have grown through rapid store openings
rather than acquisitions, operations as
disparate as Zumiez, Urban Outfitters,
Aéropostale, The Buckle, and one-time Limited
divisions Tween Brands (the erstwhile Limited
Too) and Abercrombie & Fitch.
As a group, specialty apparel retailers
didn’t fare as well as those focused
on the younger set. With sales gains of
35.8 percent, only No. 5 American
Apparel earned a single-digit ranking.
American Apparel has been opening
stores with a vengeance, fueling its
torrid sales gains, but the expansion
might be coming at the expense of fiscal
prudence, with securities analysts and
industry watchers raising red flags over
equilibrium on the company’s balance
sheet.
Amazon.com hasn’t carved
out a niche so much as it has defined
what online retailing is and how it
should be
 conducted. The result is a
formidable seller of books, music,
movies and a lot of other goods, as well
as an entity that functions like an
electronic shopping mall — directing
shoppers to branded stores carrying
other retailers’ names — and as a
facilitator and consultant for retailers
too small or too inexperienced to
establish e-commerce businesses on their
own. All the while, Amazon has remained
innovative and creative while adding new
merchandise
categories (like groceries) and
introducing the Kindle, an
electronic device enabling the
downloading and reading of books in
digital formats.
GameStop spreads internationally
GameStop has no direct competition in this
country, though retailers from Best Buy and
Blockbuster to Target and Walmart all sell
electronic games. GameStop continues to
open stores here, aiming for about 300
this year, but its greatest
opportunities are overseas, where it
buys entire chains to enter a new
country or market. Earlier this year,
GameStop acquired the 49-unit Free
Record Shop in Norway to go with the 100
units it already operated in
Scandinavia. More recently, GameStop
agreed to purchase The Gamesman, New
Zealand’s largest independent game
retailer, which will give it 308
locations in New Zealand and Australia.
No. 9 FTD sells flowers and gifts directly to
consumers through ftd.com and is also a web and
telephone marketer of merchandise
through its network of approximately
20,000 North American flower shops.
Merchandise includes flowers, plants,
pots and vases as well as books, plush
toys, jewelry and collectibles. This is
likely FTD’s final appearance on the Hot
100 chart,
since it has agreed to be acquired by United
Online, a provider of consumer Internet and
media services based in Woodland Hills, Calif.
A number of retailers have displayed the ability
to maintain their heated growth pace over the
three years of the Hot 100’s existence. In spite
of the sluggish consumer spending environment,
GameStop, CVS Caremark and Amazon.com sport
triple-digit growth over the extended period.
What might seem counterintuitive is that not all
of the three-peat Hot 100 retailers are active
in the mergers and acquisitions arena or are
young go-go companies. Among the 40 retailers
showing sustained sizzle are Walmart, Costco,
Tiffany and Abercrombie & Fitch.
No food service businesses are included in this
group because restaurants weren’t part of the
initial Hot 100, but restaurants now constitute
the largest segment among Hot 100 Retailers,
though for compilation purposes they are grouped
into three sub-segments (Sandwich/beverage,
casual and upscale dining).
Size is not an impediment to hot sales,
with fully 30 companies appearing on
both the Top 100
chart and the Hot 100 list, ranging from Walmart
at the top end to No. 99 Saks Fifth Avenue,
which is prospering after slimming down from its
foray into regional department stores. Jewelry,
a retail segment not represented at all in the
Top 100, is well-represented among Hot 100
Retailers, including Tiffany, Blue Nile, Finlay
Enterprises (operator of leased departments and
parent of the Bailey Banks & Biddle and Carlyle
chains) and Birks & Mayors, which operates
stores in both Canada and the United States.
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