Oh how I love the internet! Case in point - The Who's Who of retailing was distributed today from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and due to the lightening speed of the internet and the great invention that is the RSS (really simple syndication) feed, I was able to hop on my email this morning and see this report fed right into my inbox. (If you'd like to learn more about RSS feeds and how you can benefit from these please comment below to contact me)

The report was generated August 1st and it holds some pretty interesting results.  First off, let's just get the big white elephant out of the room; of course Wal-Mart was number one yet again. (Oh wait, I forgot, with their new "softer" logo change that is meant to instill a sense of community, they have dropped the dash!) I know a lot of retailers out there (as well as some consumers) are still holding out for the old axiom of "the bigger they are the harder they fall" to come true...it most likely will be some time before this will happen for the big Box Giant.

Now, on to some more interesting findings...I have listed below the head of the pack for the different sub categories:

Restaurants: McDonalds (knocking Starbucks down after their resurgence into healthy options and coffee baristas)

Office Supply stores: Staples (well, they do have an ‘Easy' button)

Large Format Retailers: Wal-Mart (so what's new)

Small Format Retailers: Dollar General (Dollar Stores are really rolling it in during these rough economic times)

Non-Store Retailers: Amazon.com (possibly becoming the WalMart of the web?)

Supermarkets: Kroger (honestly I still have never even seen a "Kroger" in my entire life)

DIY/Building Materials Stores: Home Depot (still holding strong even through the home equity crisis)

Entertainment Stores: GameStop (those dungeon and dragon guys sure do have the bucks!)

Pharmacy Stores: CVS (This reflects the growth and evolution of the health and wellness industry as served by "drug"/pharmacy stores)

Department Stores: Sears (boy, what a difference a year makes, as Sears is now struggling to keep up)

Clothing Stores: Gap #1, Limited #2 (Same thing with Clothing, the Limited filed for Chapter 11 earlier this year)

To view the full report visit here.

From this, I propose that we make our own Who's Who of independent retailing! If you think you have what it takes to be listed as one of the who's who, comment below with info on your store, (we're not looking for revenue reports like the NRF), but maybe a simple comment on how many contacts you have on your mailing or email lists, how many events you had in your store this past year, how much you have grown - i.e. opening another location, moving into a bigger store, increasing your buying at market, etc.

Looking forward to hearing from the who's who of the GHC! Until next time...

Happy Blogging,

Jessica