Florida Retail and Restaurants

Florida has hundreds of thousands of independent stores and restaurants. But did you know that many ubiquitous restaurant and retail chains are based in Florida?

These brands include:

Beall’s: A department store across the South, headquartered in Bradenton. Also look for Beall’s Outlets.
Chico’s: Based in Fort Myers, Chico’s FAS owns not only owns Chico’s, but White House/Black Market and Soma, a chain of intimates stores.
Publix: Based in Lakeland, they just opened their 1,000th store in the Jacksonville area.
Sweetbay: While part of the Delhaize group of grocery stores, it is headquarted in Tampa.
Robb & Stucky: A regional chain of high-end furniture stores
Winn-Dixie: This longstanding Florida chain of grocery stores is headquartered in Jacksonville

Restaurant Chains

Burger King: Based in the Miami area, they are ubiquitous around the world. Store #1 is in the Miami area.
Benihana: Miami-based Benihana Inc. (Nasdaq GS: BNHN and BNHNA) operates 64 Benihana teppanyaki restaurants, nine Haru restaurants, and twenty-two RA Sushi restaurants. Under development at present are nine restaurants: four Benihana teppanyaki restaurants and five RA Sushi restaurants. In addition, twenty-one franchised Benihana teppanyaki restaurants are operating in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean. See http://www.benihana.com/
Cheeburger Cheeburger: A chain that started on Sanibel Island.
Columbia: Based out of Tampa’s Ybor, a Florida-only chain of Cuban eateries including locations in Celebration, Ybor City and Sarasota.
Darden Restaurants: Headquarted in Orlando, owners of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Smokey Bones, Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and a slew of other restaurant brands. Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE:DRI) is the world’s largest full-service restaurant operating company.
Ker’s Wing House: A restaurant chain started by Denver Bronco Crawford Ker.
Outback Steakhouse: Tampa-based OSI Restaurant Partners LLC owns and runs Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill, Roy’s Restaurant, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, Cheeseburger in Paradise and Blue Coral Seafood & Spirits.