(FORTUNE Magazine) – WAL-MART NO. 2

Top store: Laredo, Texas Half the cars in the parking lot of the 151,900-square-foot Laredo store come from across the nearby Mexican border, the other half from U.S. counties up to an hour away. What's the lure? This is the one Wal-Mart in a 150-mile radius, and it has "the lowest prices in town," boasts manager Ed Garza--including a counter where nothing costs more than $1. Not to mention ladies' ten-karat-gold wedding-ring sets for $100 a pop.

J.C. PENNEY NO. 43

Top store: San Juan, Puerto Rico Okay, so it's not in the U.S. proper, but Penney's store in Plaza Las Americas (a centrally located mall where the store has been since 1968) is No. 1, especially to its 12,000 daily shoppers. "We are perceived as the department store on the island," explains manager Ron Howard. "So the vast majority of our associates have been here 15, 20 years." Loyalty breeds loyalty: Howard says that 40% of his customers shop there every week.

BORDERS No. 485

Top store: Chicago It takes 143 employees to handle the 500,000 books at the six-year-old Michigan Avenue store--the largest of the country's 336 Borders in both selection and size (44,000 square feet). Another reason this store is tops, says manager Matthew Coyne, a veteran of Borders in Pittsburgh and Singapore: "We sell a heck of a lot of coffee." And draw a lot of Oprah fans: The talk-show queen is a regular customer ("She's friends with the kids in the cafe").

OFFICE DEPOT NO. 167

Top store: Miami Miami is home to the Office Depot-sponsored Ladies Pro Golf Association tourney--as well as to Office Depot's No. 1 store. Proof that corporate largesse helps propel sales? Perhaps. Or maybe the five-year-old store, in the city's tony Coral Gables section, does so well because it "really caters to the small-business customer," says manager Ralph Herrerias. In an area with 3,800 businesses, there's a mint to be made on paper clips.

HOME DEPOT NO. 23

Top store: Flushing, N.Y. This location's willingness to sell bathroom sinks at two in the morning has something to do with its ranking. Who's buying pipes and paint at that hour? "Police officers, waitresses, shift workers," offers Howard Kohler, who manages the five-year-old, 125,000-square-foot store's 400 employees. It is also ideally positioned on the Long Island Expressway, drawing everyone from Manhattan supers to Queens contractors 24 hours a day.

MCDONALD'S NO. 138 Top restaurant: New York City

Talk about diverse clientele: Both teens hanging out by MTV's Times Square headquarters and Broadway theatergoers in a rush turn to this Mickey D's. The 7,300-square-foot restaurant, open since 1984 and remodeled in 1998 by franchisees Jim and Dick Lewis, has golden arches that soar 23 feet (the highest in the country), a facade that lights up like Vegas, and a nine-foot model of New York--Lady Liberty and all. "It's a tourist attraction," says Jim Lewis.

MARRIOTT NO. 186 Top hotel: New York City

With 1,946 rooms and a 46-story atrium, Manhattan's Marriott Marquis is one of the chain's largest, pulling in $260 million last year. General manager Mike Stengel is on call 24 hours a day, once overnighting $20,000 in cash that a guest had left in his room safe. But what really keeps this hotel booked at 94% occupancy is location, location, location. Like McDonald's, it's near Times Square, "probably the hottest place in the city," says Stengel.