Retail Ventures, Inc.

We opened our first Value City department store in Columbus, Ohio in 1917. Until our initial public offering on June 18, 1991, Value City department stores operated as a division of Schottenstein Stores Corporation (“SSC”). As of January 28, 2006 SSC owned approximately 48.2% of the outstanding shares and beneficially owns 59.0% (assumes issuance of (i) 8,333,333 RVI Common Shares issuable upon the exercise of convertible warrants, (ii) 1,388,752 shares of RVI Common Shares issuable upon the exercise of term loan warrants, and, (iii) 685,417 RVI Common Shares issuable pursuant to the term loan warrants of the outstanding shares of Retail Ventures. We also have a number of ongoing related party agreements and arrangements with SSC. These are more fully described in Item 13 of this Annual Report beginning on page 59.