Spectrum Life Works

The Home Depot, founded in 1978, is one of the world's largest home improvement specialty retailers with over 2,200 stores throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and China. In addition, it operates nearly 35 EXPO Design Center stores and more than 10 The Home Depot Landscape Supply stores. It stocks over 40,000 hardware, plumbing, lumber and landscaping products for the professional as well as the weekend do-it-yourselfer. The Home Depot provides shopping, design, home and contractor services, credit programs, delivery options, home improvement loans, tool and truck rentals, free how-to clinics and children s workshops. The company specializes in flooring, lighting and plumbing supplies and kitchen and interior d cor products. The Home Depot is a corporate partner and supports a number of sports and environmental programs. It sponsors the Olympic Games, Olympic Employment Program, National Football League and NASCAR Racing. The Home Depot has been recognized as the most admired specialty retailer by the Fortune magazine. The Home Depot is headquartered in Atlanta.

The Marmaxx Group is managed by The TJX Companies, which is one of the leading off-price retailers of apparel and home fashion accessories in the United States. Founded ion 1919, The TJX Companies, formerly known as New England Trading Company, employs a work force of more than 120,000 people and maintains over 2,500 stores. It maintains stores under the Marshalls, HomeGoods, T.J. Maxx and A.J. Wright brand names. The company also operates stores under the Winners, HomeSense and STYLESENSE brands in Europe and Canada. Its stores serve an assortment of accent furniture, giftware, lamps, rugs and wall decoration accessories. The store chain also offers a selection of apparel and footwear for men, women and children. Each of the stores of T.J. Maxx maintains an area of more than 30,000-square-foot facility.

The TJX Companies is one of the leading off-price apparel and home fashions retailers in the United States and throughout the world. The company operates eight businesses that include T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, A.J. Wright and Bob s Stores in the United States, Winners and HomeSense in Canada and T.K. Maxx in Europe. It also operates two e-commerce sites, www.tjmaxx.com and www.homegoods.com. The company s off-price mission is to deliver a rapidly changing assortment of quality, brand name merchandise at prices that are 20 to 60 percent less than department and specialty store regular prices, every day. Its target customer for off-price concepts is a middle-to upper-middle income shopper. The TJX Companies is located in Framingham, Mass.