Five hot retailers

It seems like we've been concentrating on the folks who aren't doing so well (Office Max, Kmart, Mervyns), so here's an item, from CNN, on five hot new retailers.

• Ashley Furniture Industries -- A Wisconsin combo manufacturer/retailer with 100 stores, growing at 40% a year.
• The Fresh Market -- A Whole Foods wannabee from North Carolina with about 50 stores.
• Steve & Barry's -- Marketers of low-price merchandise labeled with university names, they doubled in size in both 2003 and 2004. Started with near-campus shops, but now expanding into malls with big stores that take over those empty department stores.
• Metropark -- They didn't describe this one much, other than that it appeals to young adults, and it's by the people who created Hot Topic.
• Culvers -- Not a retailer in the sense that we discuss them here, this is a midwestern fast-food chain that is rapidly expanding -- now about 300 locations. I love their Butter Burgers.