Real People Rate Customer Service

FINDLAY, OH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 18, 2006 -- Revealing to businesses the importance of brand image and consumer perception, Corporate Research International released today the results of RealPeopleRatings.com™, its quarterly customer service survey. SUBWAY, Olive Garden, Cici's Pizza, Marriott, Southwest Airlines, BP, Nordstrom, Stride Rite, Ace Hardware, Dick's Sporting Goods, Publix, Walgreens, Credit Unions and Best Buy earned the highest marks in their categories this quarter.

RealPeopleRatings.com™ was launched in 2005 by Corporate Research International, a market research firm specializing in mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys. The company sends the quarterly surveys as online opinion polls to its pool of panelists. A total of 6,253 panelists participated in this quarter's survey, conducted between Oct. 2 and Oct. 15, 2006.

Respondents rated their perception of each business' customer service on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest. If a respondent did not have experience with the business, the panelist did not enter a score.

"These ratings serve as a guide for both customers and for companies," said Mike Mallett, CEO of Corporate Research International. "RealPeopleRatings.com is a way for companies to gauge how they're being perceived by the public, and serves as a checklist to determine new ways to improve customer service and help businesses stay ahead of their competition."

Category Winners:

Fast Food Restaurants
SUBWAY
Quiznos
Sonic

Full-service Restaurants
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse
Texas Roadhouse

Pizza Restaurants
Cici's Pizza
Papa Murphy's Take 'n' Bake Pizza
Papa John's

Convenience Stores
BP
Chevron/Texaco
Shell

Department Stores
Nordstrom
Saks Fifth Avenue
Bloomingdale's

Shoe Stores
Stride Rite
Payless ShoeSource
Shoe Carnival

Home Improvement Stores
Ace Hardware
True Value
Lowe's

Supermarkets
Publix
Kroger
Safeway

Sporting Goods Stores
Dick's Sporting Goods
Finish Line
Foot Locker

Drug Stores
Walgreens
CVS/Pharmacy
Rite Aid

Electronics Stores
Best Buy
RadioShack
Circuit City

Banks
Credit Unions
Washington Mutual
Wachovia

Hotels
Marriott
Hyatt
Hilton

Airlines
Southwest
JetBlue
American

Survey Methodology

Survey respondents represented all regions of the country and completed only one survey each. Respondents spanned all ages, household incomes, education levels, and ethnicities.

The scores reflect the mean score, the most reliable way to describe the "center of gravity" of a distribution of scores. The mean is an average of the sum of each score divided by the total number of observations.

About Corporate Research International

Founded in 1989, Corporate Research International specializes in mystery shopping services and interactive customer voice and Web response surveys. The company has built a reputation for tracking trends of quality service and appearance, and providing analysis to help businesses make critical decisions needed to retain happy, loyal customers. Corporate Research International was named to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in 2005 and 2006. For more information please visit www.corpri.com.

Contact Information: Contact: Dace delaForet Paul Werth Associates 614-224-8114, ext. 235 Email Contact