Still Cookin’

To make the Hot 100 Retailers list is a noteworthy achievement; to have sustained that sizzle for five consecutive years in the midst of the worst economic environment in generations is especially impressive.

Sixteen companies have appeared on every Hot 100 list since STORES launched the feature in 2006. Six are apparel chains – truly notable, given what clothing retailers have experienced the past two years. Not surprising is the inclusion of Walgreen and CVS, which have been furiously adding stores and sales both through acquisition and aggressive store-opening campaigns. Two sporting goods retailers are among the Sustained Sizzlers: Dick’s Sporting Goods, which serves traditional participants and weekend warriors, and Cabela’s, which caters to outdoors enthusiasts.

PetSmart, Tractor Supply Co. and Amazon.com effectively created and continue to define their respective retail segments; Dollar Tree, O’Reilly Automotive and Best Buy have benefited from contraction and acquisition within their merchandise niches.

Operating in a retail segment that has been in the doldrums for several years, Aéropostale, Urban Outfitters, Jos. A. Bank, Ross Stores, J.Crew and Dress Barn have taken different paths to sustaining their sizzle.

Aéropostale began 30 years ago as a Macy’s proprietary brand; it is now a formidable mall-based chain in its own right, targeting 14- to 17-year-olds. The company recently launched a new concept, P.S. from Aéropostale, aimed at the elementary school set.

Urban Outfitters provides a quirky style for its millennial customers. The retailer’s marketing chief Dmitri Siegel is guided by two axioms: “hang out with the cool kids” and “don’t be a snob.” The company’s eccentricity extends to store design — a new location on Manhattan’s Upper West Side has a storefront styled to look like a hat store, hardware store, neighborhood bar and bodega in succession.

Dress Barn began reinventing itself a few years ago, making a success of oft-peddled maurices as well as its own dressbarn units. It merged last summer with Tween Brands—itself once part of Leslie Wexner’s Limited empire: The best performing divisions of the combined company (maurices, dressbarn and Justice) are all positioned as value chains.

With more than 950 stores carrying the Dress for Less banner and another 50 or so with the dd’s Discount nameplate, Ross Stores has carried its performance into 2010 with “robust sales and record levels of profitability,” says vice chairman and CEO Michael Balmuth. “We believe our results continue to benefit from superior execution of our off-price strategies, combined with our favorable position as a value retailer in the current economic and retail environment.”

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers has been around for more than a century. Now with nearly 500 stores, it sells everything from classically-tailored suits to underwear, sportswear, shoes and accessories. The company also sells formal wear, and earlier this year expanded into the tuxedo rental business.

Like Sears, Roebuck & Co., J.Crew began as a catalog retailer and still sells a fair portion of merchandise through catalogs and e-commerce. Most of the excitement, however, is generated in the stores, where Mickey Drexler has been holding the reins through J.Crew’s period of sustained sizzle. Drexler made Gap iconic in the 1990s and has done the same thing with J.Crew — Michelle Obama dressed the First Daughters in the retailer’s crewcuts clothing for the inauguration — growing the chain’s concepts with men’s wear-only stores, international locations and the recently launched J.Crew Bridal on New York’s Madison Avenue.