Locations

This service is primarily available within the following locations:

Washington DC

Washington, District of Columbia is the nation’s capital and for this reason, alone, attracts many young, enthusiastic, vibrant and intellectual people to the city. As the political center of the nation for years, it brought a thoughtful, hard-working group to assume civil service positions in government. In addition, Washington has been home to the nation’s government institutions, think tanks, legal and lobbying firms, many universities and colleges and hundreds of non-profit organizations. These latter groups include the non-profit associations that frequently undergo accreditation or validation processes. Further, the city has a history of fine arts, offering free public museums filled with cherished treasures and concert halls with orchestras, trios, quartets and soloists offering musical artistry of breathtaking quality. I have lived in Washington D.C. for the past twenty years and during this time, have seen the city change exponentially from a quiet nation’s capital and politically-centered city to a thoroughly cosmopolitan urban mecca, While it also experienced racial strife in the late 60s through the 90s, local government has found its feet and the city is now safer and healthier economically and has a more diversified economy and population. In the first five years of this century, there were tax incentives for people to move into the city and purchase homes. This movement had a positive effect on thousands of people including my husband and myself. In recent times, Washington has increased its number of for-profit businesses and companies. Further discussion about recent arrivals to the city, both individuals and businesses will be discussed under “Current Position”. Washington also is close to Northern Virginia and Maryland. As a result, many people commute to Washington from these areas to work and participate in extra-curricular activities, such as cultural, educational, social and political events. Since 1790, it has been been a city of political power and influence for the citizens of the United States and world. It is a beautiful city of trees and parks. George Washington, first President of the United States appointed Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design Washington with grand boulevards and ceremonial spaces reminiscent of L’Enfant’s native Paris ((John Sanderson, The History of Washington D.C.)

Today, there are 691,170 people living in Washington, with a median age of 33.9 and a median household income of $75,506 (datausa.io/profile/geo/Washington-dc) with an economy growing rapidly and not totally dependent on government positions and law firms. They exist, but there are many for-profit businesses as well as non-profit organizations. In addition, there are technology start-ups within the area plus the financial industry has grown since 2000. This is specifically true of major banks and private investment companies in the D.C. region. This is a diverse city with, Asian, Hispanic and White populations increasing. The African-American population, however, has seen a decrease over the last twenty years. It had been the largest population for many years, prior to 1998. The millennial population is plentiful because there is a growth of job opportunities within the areas of Washington, Maryland and Virginia and the city caters to young professionals. What is noticeable is the development of these two surrounding states, Northern Virginia and Maryland. Here, the growth of businesses has grown over the past ten years and it is anticipated to continue within the next decade. The city is also culturally important in art, music and dance. It has a new interest in a variety of cuisines and this development has had a phenomenal growth over the past ten years. The city now boasts of several Michelin star (from 1 to 3 star restaurants in the city and region) as of two years ago. Washington is a cosmopolitan city with a good transportation system, but the city is also enjoyable for walking and cycling. In addition, it seems more manageable to govern. This said, given the increased numbers of new residents in the city, potential clients would seem to be drawn to this area.

As touched upon in the paragraphs under, “Current Position”, I would view the future commercial outlook for Washington to be extremely positive. It is now a vibrant city and one that will continue to grow. Traditionally, as a result of the political environment, there are ongoing changes in the population every few years – those coming to assume positions in government, embassies and think tanks, This, draws not only on US citizens, but international people as well. The city brings more than 20 million visitors to Washington over the course of each year for meetings / conferences, parades, special events and festivals, such as the Cherry Festival, rallies and protests. This, too, will continue and it will be excellent for the economy. Today, the city also sees an increase in the number of entrepreneurial groups. This means that the more traditional comment about Washington being a ‘political city’ primarily is diminishing. The variety of business – financial, investment companies, hotel and beverage companies, technological companies educational opportunities are almost as prolific as civil service positions. This diverse growth in business and economy is energetic and welcoming to people of all ages. As of November 13, 2018, the latest headline about new growth in the Washington/Virginia area is from Amazon. The decision to build one of its two new headquarters in Crystal City, adjacent to downtown Washington was announced. This decision means that the company will employ 25,000 new people and increase the growth of the population and economy for the foreseeable future. The possibilities of other companies moving to the city to support the needs of Amazon are in the offing too (The New York Times and Washington Post, November 13, 2018).

New York NY

New York, frequently known as the borough of Manhattan, is the largest city in the United States. Throughout its history, it was the port of entry and opportunity for immigrants from around the world seeking to settle in this country. It was especially evident in the 19th and 20th centuries. This being the case, it has one of the most diverse populations in the United States. There are probably 800 languages spoken in the city, even though English is predominant. For decades, New York has been a world-class city and compares to London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Sydney, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and other wonderful metropolitan areas. New York has been the center of finance within the United States for more than two centuries and it draws on one of the most diverse populations in the United States. I had the pleasure of living in the city for almost fifteen years in the 1980s and 1990s when the population was 7 million. I grew to love the city because of its many different neighborhoods and ethnic groups. Although visitors to the city would say they loved to visit, but not live there because of the hectic life and large population, I did not find this true. New York is divided into communities or neighborhoods and when you grew to know several and live in one, it was an extremely welcoming and warm experience. You also were part of the busy atmosphere of the city, but this was energizing and productive.

Today, New York has a population of 8.55 million and continues to be the largest city in the country. The median age is 36.2 (similar to Washington), the median income is $58,856 and the number of employees is 4.11 million. The most common employment in New York for those who actually live there is Healthcare, Social Assistance, Retail Trade, and Professional Scientific Tech Services. Finance is one of the most highly paid positions, along with Insurance, Management of Companies and Professional Scientific Services (datausa.io/profile/geo/Washington-dc). As Washington was and continues to be the political city of the country, New York continues to be the financial center. Although one experienced a financial crisis of 2008 in the United States, it also saw financial experts manage the crisis and assist the economy to recovery. New York also is the second highest state that shows people earning an average of $2.2 million dollars per year (howmuch.net). A casual look at the burgeoning number of ongoing avante-garde architecture projects will convince one that this is a city of extreme wealth. It is also true that residents of NY as well as casual visitors continue to say that the energy and creative spirit of the city is unmatched. This is one reason that creative types continue to gravitate to the city. New York is also the benchmark for almost every category of business, educational or artistic pursuit. From finance, to fashion, architecture, theater, television, ballet, music, publishing, healthcare, education and haute cuisine – whatever one experiences, the best is possible in the city. As Frank Sinatra sang, “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere” – still just as true.

The future is looking bright. As noted under Location # 1, Washington, Long Island City, adjacent to Manhattan, is the second city to be named as one of the 2 new headquarters for Amazon, according to The New York Times and Washington Post on November 13, 2018. This means that an additional 25,000 highly paid employees of Amazon will be moving to the city. Although logistical problems for this new business need to be addressed, i.e., housing, every household service, electricity, transportation, in a city already overcrowded, there is also the fact that the economy will rise by virtue of the additional spending in the city. But New York is beginning to look at a vision for 2040, knowing full well that it might have a population of 9 million. With this possibility in mind for the next two to three decades, there will be a need for more of ‘everything’. The city will need to be a greener and smarter city and expand into boroughs that are adjacent to it, such as Brooklyn, Staten Island, Bronx, and Queens. As noted under “Current Conditions”, the transformation has begun in the city, especially on the West side along the Hudson River and the architectural design is impressive. In addition, there is considerable development of future skyscrapers in other parts of the city. The high energy in many of the creative people in the city promotes this new vision for New York in the future.

Philadelphia PA

Having spent my childhood in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, I grew to admire and respect one of the most historic cities in the country. Founded by William Penn, an English Quaker in 1682, the city’s Quaker influence extended to its tolerance of worshiping freely, its high quality of education, its equality for all and to its communities, the “Friends” who were members of the Quaker Meeting Houses in and around the border towns of Philadelphia. These principles also included fairness, honesty, and social justice and were upheld for centuries throughout the city. Philadelphia was the city where the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the Constitution of the United States in 1787. For a brief time, it was the nation’s capital during the American Revolution and George Washington asked that it be a temporary capital during the period when the city of Washington was being built. It was against this background that Philadelphia established highly regarded institutions, such as the Ivy League and Quaker university, the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first library and fire protection society, each founded by Benjamin Franklin. The city I knew was a family-oriented city with such diverse groups of people, as the Quakers, Irish, Germans, Italians, Polish, African-Americans and Puerto Ricans. The city grew to be a major center for medicine with seven medical schools and attached hospitals in the 1970s plus more than 80 educational institutions, i.e., colleges and universities and vocational schools, in and around the city. The city also provided excellent transportation, such as subways, bus transportation, trolleys and the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was a city that easily transported commuters between New York and Washington. In 1976, the city saw an influx of funding to pay for the improvement of the city’s infrastructure, housing, skyline and entertainment and tourist industry. As a result, it created a more cosmopolitan environment.

Presently, Philadelphia is a city of more than 1.5 million people with a median age of 34.1 and a median income of 41,449, less than Washington and New York (datausa.io). Today, it is an infinitely more vibrant city than described under the “History” section above and it has an active downtown area with homes, apartments, restaurants, shops and museums. One of the areas along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway is almost totally devoted to excellent museums and these are bordered by a boulevard of trees and plantings. It is one of the more beautiful areas of the city. Other sections of the mid-city area have completely restored its beautiful eighteenth century Georgian homes and to the west of the city both the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University have expanded their campuses to include major medical and science centers as well as housing facilities. Philadelphia has always been home to a famous orchestra and academy of music. Today, it has a relatively new Performance Arts center and within this area are numerous theaters. As a result of the many post-secondary educational institutions, it has a young professional group of people living, studying and working in center city or in its surroundings. Philadelphia is also surrounded by a great number of beautiful towns outside of the city’s limits. As a result, it is an extremely pleasant city in which to live and work. With regard to employment, the major current employers are in Healthcare, Education, Management, Finance, Law, Hospitality and Social Services.

By virtue of the fact that Philadelphia resides between New York and Washington, the future outlook seems positive for the city. Sheer numbers indicate that a projected increase in growth population along the east coast would make Philadelphia a center for a large variety of businesses, especially ones that wish to be close to New York and Washington and prefer to be in a less congested city. Philadelphia also offers the vibrancy and charm of the large city but with a cost of living that is more reasonable. In addition, there will continue to be commuters traveling to New York or Washington, but living in Philadelphia. This currently happens in nearby towns, such as Allentown PA which has daily and direct return trip buses to New York or Philadelphia. Also, with the expansion of innovative facilities for educational institutions in Philadelphia, the work force needed for positions in engineering, technology, medicine / healthcare and science will increase. Further, a large labor force needed for the maintenance of a new STEM infrastructure will be required. It will be exciting to see the city grow in directions that will assist both the skilled and unskilled worker. Philadelphia’s development of its skyline will also define its city center and provide a background for its vibrant life. As noted in Aubrey Nagle’s article in phillyvoice.com, Is Philadelphia finally getting the new skyline it deserves? – the new skyline will be “a mosaic of styles, with one foot in the past and one in the future”. The architecture of the future will be both a highlight and drawing card for the city.

Boston MA

Boston was the largest town in British America until Philadelphia grew larger in the mid-18th century. Boston’s oceanfront location made it a lively port, and the city primarily engaged in shipping and fishing during its colonial days. However, Boston stagnated in the decades prior to the Revolution. By the mid-18th century, New York City and Philadelphia surpassed Boston in wealth. Boston encountered financial difficulties even as other cities in New England grew rapidly. In the 1820s, Boston’s population grew rapidly, and the city’s ethnic composition changed dramatically with the first wave of European immigrants. Irish immigrants dominated the first wave of newcomers during this period, especially following the Irish Potato Famine; by 1850, about 35,000 Irish lived in Boston. In the latter half of the 19th century, the city saw increasing numbers of Irish, Germans, Lebanese, Syrians, French Canadians, and Russian and Polish Jews settling in the city. By the end of the 19th century, Boston’s core neighborhoods had become enclaves of ethnically distinct immigrants. The city went into decline by the early to mid-20th century, as factories became old and obsolete and businesses moved out of the region for cheaper labor elsewhere. Boston responded by initiating various urban renewal projects, under the direction of the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) established in 1957. In 1958, BRA initiated a project to improve the historic West End neighborhood. By the 1970s, the city’s economy had recovered after 30 years of economic downturn. A large number of high-rises were constructed in the Financial District and in Boston’s Back Bay during this period. This boom continued into the mid-1980s and resumed after a few pauses. Hospitals such as Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital lead the nation in medical innovation and patient care. Schools such as Boston College, Boston University, the Harvard Medical School, Tufts University School of Medicine, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Berklee College of Music, and Boston Conservatory attract students to the area. Nevertheless, the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.

Boston is an intellectual, technological, and political center but has lost some important regional institutions, including the loss to mergers and acquisitions of local financial institutions such as FleetBoston Financial, which was acquired by Charlotte-based Bank of America in 2004. Boston-based department stores Jordan Marsh and Filene’s have both merged into the Cincinnati–based Macy’s. The 1993 acquisition of The Boston Globe by The New York Times was reversed in 2013 when it was re-sold to Boston businessman John W. Henry. In 2016, it was announced General Electric would be moving its corporate headquarters from Connecticut to the Innovation District in South Boston, joining many other companies in this rapidly developing neighborhood. Boston has experienced gentrification in the latter half of the 20th century, with housing prices increasing sharply since the 1990s. Living expenses have risen; Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the United States and was ranked the 129th-most expensive major city in the world in a 2011 survey of 214 cities. Despite cost-of-living issues, Boston ranks high on livability ratings, ranking 36th worldwide in quality of living in 2011 in a survey of 221 major cities. On April 15, 2013, two Chechen Islamist brothers detonated a pair of bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring roughly 264. In 2016, Boston briefly shouldered a bid as the US applicant for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The bid was supported by the mayor and a coalition of business leaders and local philanthropists, but was eventually dropped due to public opposition. The USOC then selected Los Angeles to be the American candidate with Los Angeles ultimately securing the right to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

In 2016, Boston was estimated to have 673,184 residents (a density of 13,841 persons/sq mi, or 5,344/km2) living in 272,481 housing units, a 9% population increase over 2010. The city is the third-most densely populated large U.S. city of over half a million residents. Some 1.2 million persons may be within Boston’s boundaries during work hours, and as many as 2 million during special events. This fluctuation of people is caused by hundreds of thousands of suburban residents who travel to the city for work, education, health care, and special events. In the city, the population was spread out with 21.9% at age 19 and under, 14.3% from 20 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.9 males. There were 252,699 households, of which 20.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 25.5% were married couples living together, 16.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 54.0% were non-families. 37.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 3.08. Boston has one of the largest LGBT populations in the United States. The median household income in Boston was $51,739, while the median income for a family was $61,035. Full-time year-round male workers had a median income of $52,544 versus $46,540 for full-time year-round female workers. The per capita income for the city was $33,158. 21.4% of the population and 16.0% of families are below the poverty line. Of the total population, 28.8% of those under the age of 18 and 20.4% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

A global city, Boston is placed among the top 30 most economically powerful cities in the world. Encompassing $363 billion, the Greater Boston metropolitan area has the sixth-largest economy in the country and 12th-largest in the world. Boston’s colleges and universities exert a significant impact on the regional economy. Boston attracts more than 350,000 college students from around the world, who contribute more than US$4.8 billion annually to the city’s economy. The area’s schools are major employers and attract industries to the city and surrounding region. The city is home to a number of technology companies and is a hub for biotechnology, with the Milken Institute rating Boston as the top life sciences cluster in the country. Boston receives the highest absolute amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health of all cities in the United States. The city is considered highly innovative for a variety of reasons, including the presence of academia, access to venture capital, and the presence of many high-tech companies. The Route 128 corridor and Greater Boston continue to be a major center for venture capital investment, and high technology remains an important sector. Tourism also composes a large part of Boston’s economy, with 21.2 million domestic and international visitors spending $8.3 billion in 2011. Excluding visitors from Canada and Mexico, over 1.4 million international tourists visited Boston in 2014, with those from China and the United Kingdom leading the list. Boston’s status as a state capital as well as the regional home of federal agencies has rendered law and government to be another major component of the city’s economy. The city is a major seaport along the East Coast of the United States and the oldest continuously operated industrial and fishing port in the Western Hemisphere.

Chicago IL

Chicago’s flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States. Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in the United States of foreign parentage. Germans, Irish, Poles, Swedes and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city’s population). Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike. Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago’s immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became a model for the new field of social work. During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City, and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states. In the 1800s, Chicago became the nation’s railroad center, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago’s railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones. This system for telling time spread throughout the continent. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition on former marshland at the present location of Jackson Park. The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world’s fair in history. The University of Chicago, formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term “midway” for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance, a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects the Washington and Jackson Parks. The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city’s heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of the Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat. From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. Unemployed workers, relief recipients, and unpaid schoolteachers held huge demonstrations during the early years of the Great Depression.

Chicago today is the third most populous city in the United States. As of the 2017 census-estimate, it has a population of 2,716,450, which makes it the most populous city in both the state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States, and the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, which is often referred to as “Chicagoland.” The Chicago metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America, and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area. Located on the shores of Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew rapidly in the mid-nineteenth century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900 Chicago was one of the five largest cities in the world. During this period, Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles (including the Chicago School of architecture), the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper. Chicago is an international hub for finance, commerce, industry, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It was the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures. O’Hare International Airport is the one of the busiest airports in the world, and the region also has the largest number of U.S. highways and greatest amount of railroad freight. In 2012, Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network and it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index. Chicago has one of the highest gross metropolitan products in the world, generating over $679.69 billion in 2017. In addition, it has one of the worlds most diversified and balanced economies, not being dependent on any one industry, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.

Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States, about $670.5 billion according to September 2017 estimates. The city has also been rated as having the most balanced economy in the United States, due to its high level of diversification. In 2007, Chicago was named the fourth-most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. Additionally, the Chicago metropolitan area recorded the greatest number of new or expanded corporate facilities in the United States for calendar year 2014. The Chicago metropolitan area has the third-largest science and engineering work force of any metropolitan area in the nation. In 2009 Chicago placed ninth on the UBS list of the world’s richest cities. Chicago was the base of commercial operations for industrialists John Crerar, John Whitfield Bunn, Richard Teller Crane, Marshall Field, John Farwell, Julius Rosenwald and many other commercial visionaries who laid the foundation for Midwestern and global industry. Chicago is a major world financial center, with the second-largest central business district in the United States. The city is the seat of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Bank’s Seventh District. The city has major financial and futures exchanges, including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago’s CME Group. In 2017, Chicago exchanges traded 4.7 billion derivatives with a face value of over one quadrillion dollars. Chase Bank has its commercial and retail banking headquarters in Chicago’s Chase Tower. Academically, Chicago has been influential through the Chicago school of economics, which fielded some 12 Nobel Prize winners.

The city and its surrounding metropolitan area contain the third-largest labor pool in the United States with about 4.63 million workers. Illinois is home to 66 Fortune 1000 companies, including those in Chicago. The city of Chicago also hosts 12 Fortune Global 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city claims three Dow 30 companies: aerospace giant Boeing, which moved its headquarters from Seattle to the Chicago Loop in 2001, McDonald’s and Kraft Heinz. According to Site Selection magazine, the Chicago area has seen the most corporate headquarters relocation or expansion projects in the US for each of four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016. Caterpillar Inc. will be moving its global headquarters, with about 300 executives and staff and support personnel, to the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois, while its high-technology center is in Chicago, by the end of 2018. The headquarters of United Continental Holdings, its subsidiary United Airlines, and its operations center are in the Willis Tower in Chicago. Manufacturing, printing, publishing and food processing also play major roles in the city’s economy. Several medical products and services companies are headquartered in the Chicago area, including Baxter International, Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, and the Healthcare division of General Electric. In addition to Boeing, which located its headquarters in Chicago in 2001, and United Airlines in 2011, GE Transportation moved its offices to the city in 2013 and GE Healthcare moved its HQ to the city in 2016, as did ThyssenKrupp North America, and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland. Moreover, the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, which helped move goods from the Great Lakes south on the Mississippi River, and of the railroads in the 19th century made the city a major transportation center in the United States. In the 1840s, Chicago became a major grain port, and in the 1850s and 1860s Chicago’s pork and beef industry expanded. As the major meat companies grew in Chicago many, such as Armour and Company, created global enterprises. Although the meatpacking industry currently plays a lesser role in the city’s economy, Chicago continues to be a major transportation and distribution center. Lured by a combination of large business customers, federal research dollars, and a large hiring pool fed by the area’s universities, Chicago is also the site of a growing number of web startup companieslike CareerBuilder, Orbitz, Basecamp, Groupon, Feedburner, Grubhub and NowSecure. Prominent food companies based in Chicago include the world headquarters of Kraft Heinz, Mondelez International, Ferrara Candy Company, McDonald’s, Quaker Oats, and ConAgra. Chicago has been a hub of the Retail sector since its early development, with Montgomery Ward, Sears, and Marshall Field’s. Today the Chicago metropolitan area is the headquarters of several retailers, including Walgreens, Sears, Ace Hardware, Claire’s, ULTA Beauty and Crate & Barrel.