In the United States, retailers competed at local, regional and national levels, with some of the major chains
such as Wal-Mart and Costco counting operations in foreign countries as well. In addition to the traditional
one-store owner-operated retailer, the industry included formats such as discount stores, department stores
(selling a large percentage of soft goods, i.e., clothing), variety and convenience stores, specialty stores,
supermarkets, supercentres (combination discount and supermarket stores), Internet retailers and catalogue
retailers. Major retailers competed for employees and store locations, as well as for customers. The 10
biggest global retailers were as follows: