| 100% | WOOLWORTH | 9 | This family opened its first 5-cent store in 1879 |
| 46% | IKEA | 4 | Swedish retailer that opened its first US store in 1985 |
| 46% | COSTCO | 6 | Retail giant that opened its first store in Seattle in 1983 |
| 44% | KRISPYKREME | 11 | It opened its first store in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1937 |
| 43% | IKEA | 4 | Retail giant that opened its first U.S. store near Philadelphia in 1985 |
| 39% | KMART | 5 | It first opened in 1962 |
| 38% | UTICA | 5 | New York city where the first "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" opened in 1879 |
| 38% | IKEA | 4 | Its first store was in Älmhult |
| 38% | IKEA | 4 | Its first store was in Älmhult, Smaland |
| 37% | IKEA | 4 | European retailer that opened its first US location in 1985 |
| 36% | BUDGENS | 7 | Supermarket with its first stores in the south |
| 36% | KMART | 5 | Store first opened in Detroit in 1962 |
| 35% | TIL | 3 | OPEN 9 ___ 5 (sign in a store window) |
| 34% | IKEA | 4 | Chain whose first store opened in Småland |
| 34% | STARBUCKS | 9 | Coffee chain store first opened in Seattle in 1971 |
| 33% | IKEA | 4 | Retail giant whose first store opened in Älmhult, Sweden |
| 33% | GAS | 3 | Boston's Haymarket Square had its first of this type of lamp installed in 1828 |
| 31% | WORLDSTALLESTSKYSCRAPER | 23 | The subject of this puzzle, on 5/1/31, the day it opened |
| 31% | SANTA | 5 | It can precede eight first names in this puzzle to form the names of California cities |
| 31% | RAPTORS | 7 | This Toronto team won its first NBA final in 2019 |
| 30% | SACAGAWEADOLLAR | 15 | It first circulated in 2000 |
| 30% | SENATE | 6 | It first met in 1789 |
| 29% | RAMADA | 6 | Its first hotel was in Flagstaff |
| 29% | BARTLETTS | 9 | It first included Rowling in 2003 |
| 29% | STOPMAKINGSENSE | 15 | No longer be comprehensible ... and, with its first word divided in three parts, a hint to how to read this puzzle's title |
| 28% | ESSENCEMAGAZINE | 15 | Its first cover, in 1970, said "Dynamite Afros" |
| 28% | OED | 3 | Its first complete ed. was published in 1928 |
| 28% | NHL | 3 | It first expanded to the US in 1924 |
| 28% | TAFTS | 5 | First family in 1911 |
| 28% | ELDEST | 6 | First born in family |