Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves over 14+ million customers a week in its 1,616 stores in the United States and Canada. With the opening of the South Burlington, Vermont location, Lowe's now operates stores in all 50 states. Expansion into Canada began in 2007, with the opening of a store in Hamilton, Ontario. Lowe's Companies, Inc. is 48 on the Fortune 500 list. As of 2008, the chain is based in Mooresville, North Carolina, about 30 minutes north of uptown Charlotte. Lowe's is the second-largest hardware chain in the U.S. behind The Home Depot and ahead of Menards. Globally, Lowe's is the world's second-largest hardware chain, again behind The Home Depot and ahead of Germany's OBI.

Lucius S. Lowe opened Lowe's North Wilkesboro Hardware in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina in 1921. The business was inherited by his daughter, Ruth, when Lucius died in 1940. She sold the company to her brother, Jim, that same year. Jim Lowe and Ruth's husband, Carl Buchan, both served in World War II, and during the war, the store was run by Ruth and her mother. Jim took on Carl (honorably discharged after receiving an injury) as a partner in 1943.

Under Buchan's management, the store focused on hardware and building materials. Before then, the product mix had also included notions, dry goods, horse tack, snuff, produce, and groceries. The company bought a second store in Sparta, North Carolina, in 1949.

Carl Buchan and Jim Lowe differed on expanding the company to new areas, and they split in 1952, with Buchan taking control of the hardware and building supply business, and Lowe taking other joint ventures the two controlled, including a car dealership. Buchan became the sole owner of Lowe's. Lowe started the Lowes Foods grocery store chain in 1954.

We are the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer with stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, 10 Canadian provinces, Mexico and China.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Gift Card Programs

In life it is best to know the pros and cons of a situation before committing yourself in it. Same is true with gift giving. The comparison may be slightly drastic but in truth, before you buy anything to give to your loved ones, it is best that you know the advantages and disadvantages of that item. A popular choice during gift giving season are gift cards, may they be bank issued gift cards or retail gift cards. These Home Depot gift cards programs have their advantages and their disadvantages.

Disadvantages

• Retail gift cards can only be used in only one merchant store.
• Most gift cards have no expiration dates as the law requires it but there are some rare cases that gift cards have expiration dates. Check with your sales personnel first before buying the card.
• Some cards, if not used for a long period of time, decrease in value. Again, check with your sales associate if your chosen card has this provision

Advantages

• With a gift card, your recipient will get to choose a gift item that he or she really needs or wants.
• Some merchants have a one retail gift card that they all accept.
• Gift cards are timeless gifts that everyone enjoys receiving.  Home Depot Gift Card
• Some gift cards will offer a certain percentage off on items your recipient will buy, giving him or her more purchasing power.
• For merchants, the advantages are endless. One such advantage is that these gift cards programs draw new customers.

On April 1, 1988, OfficeMax was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, by Michael Feuer (who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer) along with seven other associates. On July 5 of that year, OfficeMax opened its first retail store in the Golden Gate Shopping Center in Mayfield Heights, Ohio (the location remains open today as store #1).

OfficeMax grew by acquisition, including its 1990 takeover of Office Square stores, previously owned by Kmart, in exchange for a 22% equity stake. In 1991, Kmart increased its stake in OfficeMax to 92%. The company acquired BizMart, its largest acquisition to date, in 1992. OW-Office Warehouse, a Virginia-based regional chain, was acquired in 1993. In 1995 OfficeMax was spun-off of Kmart and became a NYSE-(OMX)-publicly-traded corporation, based in Shaker Heights, Ohio.

For the next ten years OfficeMax and its rivals, STAPLES and Office Depot, continued to open new stores, saturating the market segment. OfficeMax developed regional delivery centers, and investing in its super-regional PowerMax distribution centers in Las Vegas, NV (North Las Vegas, NV), Hazleton, PA (Onida, PA), and Birmingham, AL (McCalla, AL). All the while OfficeMax had the worst money losing results of the three. In 2001-2003, OfficeMax began closing under-performing stores in some neighborhoods and in regions where it didn't have a strong presence. Staples and Office Depot considered merging, but that deal was called off. Of the three, it was OfficeMax that would be acquired; by Boise Cascade Office Products Corporation, which had a nationwide office supply delivery operation based in Itasca, IL. Boise had no bricks and mortar retail presence; their model used sales accounts people.

Boise Cascade, which bought OfficeMax in 2003, also owned the Cuban Electric Co. before it was seized by the Cuban government following the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. OfficeMax is the largest property claimant in Cuba.