Jul. 20--Poor, shrunken General Motors.

The American auto icon has fallen so far on Wall Street that several Philadelphia-area companies, in comparison, are looking like world-class corporate titans.

One is hip Philadelphia retailer Urban Outfitters Inc., whose recent value on the stock market -- over $5 billion -- nearly matched that of GM in recent weeks. GM gained significant ground last week after announcing a restructuring, but the company's total stock value, $7.5 billion, remains half of what it was in late 2007.

Urban Outfitters markets products with whimsical brands like "Fairytales are True" and "Sparkle and Fade." Sales to mostly younger women are growing 29 percent a year.

Half of its 10,000 employees work as part-timers. Its revenue last year was $1.5 billion.

The South Philly company wouldn't seem to be in the same business league as General Motors, a company with 13 percent of the global auto market and $181 billion in 2007 revenue.

But indeed, according to investors, it is.

The Pennsylvania chocolatier Hershey Co., which has annual revenue of about $5 billion, and whose chocolate bar with almonds is celebrating its 100th birthday this year, has a stock-market value of $8 billion -- bigger than GM.

Other Philadelphia-area companies -- Campbell Soup Co., Rohm & Haas Co., Tyco Electronics and Comcast Corp. -- are significantly more valuable than GM as soaring oil prices and a recessionary economy have beaten down shares in the nation's largest domestic automaker.

On Tuesday, seeking to calm speculation that the company might be forced to eventually seek bankruptcy protection, the automaker's top executive announced several steps to slow its cash burn: eliminate the cash dividend, cancel retiree health benefits, and eliminate thousands more jobs.

"As I've said from the start, our goal is not just to change GM's bottom line from red to black, our goal is to change GM for the long haul," said chief executive officer Rick Wagoner.

The immediate goal, analysts said, was to stay solvent beyond 2009.

GM shares revved through the week. Before Tuesday, the difference in stock-market value between GM and Urban Outfitters was hovering between $300 million and $500 million. But by Friday, GM had closed with a stock-market value, or market capitalization, of $7.5 billion, compared with Urban Outfitters' market cap of $5.4 billion. This is what it would take for a corporate raider or private-equity investor to buy all the stock in the companies.

Still, these are deflated times for GM, which peaked in market cap at about $47 billion in 1998, according to Bloomberg. To put its recent decline in context, let's wander Pennsylvania, South Jersey and Delaware -- a land of towering giants when compared to the ailing automaker.