By last November, the number of billionaires had reached 32, including Kuncoro Wibowo from PT Ace Hardware.

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The most unlikely spot for jazz buffs is Meyers Ace Hardware store (315 E 35th St) on Chicago's South Side.

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That's the case at Ace Hardware -- up to a point.

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"I just think the whole attitude in life today is that people want more time off, " says Donald Schuman, vice president of information services at Ace Hardware Corp. in Oak Brook, Ill.

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Before returning to school, Petropoulos worked in the consulting industry, where one of his projects was improving the businesses of the thousands of independent owners of Ace Hardware stores across the country.

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Discount department, toy hardware and sporting goods stores -- including Ace Hardware, Ames, Blain Supply, Kay Bee Toys, Meijers, Tru-Serv and Wal-Mart -- sold these bikes nationwide from October 1999 through March 2001.

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Flanked by framed faces of funnymen, Podrebarac boasted that orders were flowing in from retailers like Ace Hardware, and demonstrated how the product would work by dipping a faux anthrax-tainted cotton swab into a vial of red liquid.

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The Sy family not only operates the malls but also controls 30% of the floor space, either through their own in-house retailers or through their franchises of such stores as the U.S.' Ace Hardware and Hong Kong's Watson's drugstores.

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