HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States. In 2021, the company had 490,600 employees and more than $151 billion in revenue. The company is headquartered in incorporated Cobb County, Georgia, with an Atlanta mailing address. It operates many big-box format stores across the United States (including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the
U.S. Virgin Islands The United States Virgin Islands,. Also called the ''American Virgin Islands'' and the ''U.S. Virgin Islands''. officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory ...
); all 10 provinces of Canada; and all 32 Mexican states and Mexico City. MRO company Interline Brands (now
The Home Depot Pro The Home Depot Pro, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is one wholesale distributor and direct marketer of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products for non-industrial businesses in the United States. The Home Depot Pro distributes p ...
) is also owned by The Home Depot, with 70 distribution centers across the United States. It has been involved in several controversies, primarily involving the security and safety of its consumers.


History


1978–1999

The Home Depot was co-founded by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone in 1978. The Home Depot's proposition was to build home-improvement superstores, larger than any of their competitors' facilities. Investment banker Ken Langone helped Marcus and Blank to secure the necessary
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
. In 1979, the first two stores, built in spaces leased from
J. C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...
that were originally Treasure Island " hypermarket" ( discount department and
grocery A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, an ...
) stores, opened in metro Atlanta (in Doraville and on Memorial Drive in Decatur, both near I-285) on June 22, 1979. On September 22, 1981, The Home Depot went public on the
NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
and raised $4.093 million. The Home Depot joined the New York Stock Exchange on April 19, 1984. The Home Depot began to branch out of Georgia to Florida in 1981 with stores opening in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
and Fort Lauderdale. By 1984, The Home Depot was operating 19 stores with sales of over $256 million. To enter the Dallas market The Home Depot acquired Bowater Home Center from Bowater Inc. on October 31, 1984, for $40 million. The increased expansion of The Home Depot in the mid-1980s created financial difficulties with earnings falling by 42% and debt rising to $200 million. The financial difficulties of The Home Depot also caused the stock price to fall. To curb The Home Depot difficulties it opened only 10 stores in 1986 with a stock offering 2.99 million shares at $17 per share which helped The Home Depot to restructure its debts. In 1989, The Home Depot became the largest home improvement store in the United States, surpassing
Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...
. In the 1990s The Home Depot searched for ways to redefine its marketplace. An installation program for quality home improvement items, such as windows or carpets, was launched in 1991 called the EXPO with success. A 480-page book ''Home Improvement 1-2-3'' was published in 1995. The Canadian hardware chain
Aikenhead's Hardware Aikenhead's Hardware was a chain of Canadian hardware stores located in Greater Toronto, Southern Ontario and northern Ontario. The original store was founded in Toronto in 1830 as "Ridout's Hardware Store" by Joseph Ridout and was located on the ...
was acquired by The Home Depot in 1994 for $150 million with a 75% share. All of the Aikenhead's Hardware stores were later converted to The Home Depot stores. By 1995, sales reached $10 billion while operating 350 stores. Former General Electric executive Robert Nardelli became CEO and president of The Home Depot in 2000.


2000–2007

San Diego maintenance and repair supplies company Maintenance Warehouse was purchased by The Home Depot in 1997 for $245 million. Maintenance Warehouse was purchased because it was a leading direct-mail marketer of maintenance, repair and operations supplies that could reach customers out of reach by The Home Depot. Atlanta-based company Apex Supply was acquired by The Home Depot in 1999. Apex Supply is a wholesale distributor of plumbing, HVAC, industrial pipe and fittings. Apex Supply and Maintenance Warehouse were rebranded in 2004 as "The Home Depot Supply." In 2004, Home Depot employees at a suburban Detroit store in
Harper Woods, Michigan Harper Woods is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city had a population of 15,492 at the 2020 census. Harper Woods is a northeastern suburb of Metro Detroit and shares its southern and western border with the city of Det ...
, rejected a bid to be represented by a
labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...
, voting 115 to 42 against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers. If the union had won, the Michigan store would have been the first Home Depot to have union representation. Your Other Warehouse, a large plumbing distributor with a focus on special order fulfillment, was acquired by The Home Depot in 2001. Your Other Warehouse also supplied two divisions of The Home Depot and the EXPO Design Centers. The "EXPO Design Center" division was reorganized in 2001 with three divisions based in the Northeast at South Plainfield, New Jersey, the West at Orange, California, and the Southeast at Atlanta, Georgia. The Home Depot entered the
Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
market in 2002 with the acquisition of the home improvement chain Del Norte. In addition, The Home Depot had begun construction of stores in Mexicali and Tijuana. In the same year the
Home Depot Landscape Supply A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...
was launched to integrate professional landscapers and upscale plants into a plant nursery retail chain. Home Depot Landscape Supply lasted only five years with only a few stores each in metro Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth. The Home Depot decided to close all Home Depot Landscape Supply stores in late 2007. In September 2005, Home Depot Direct launched its online home-furnishings store, 10 Crescent Lane, shortly followed by the launch of "Paces Trading Company," its online lighting store. In mid-2006, the Home Depot acquired Home Decorators Collection, which was placed as an additional brand under its Home Depot Direct division. In 2006, the Home Depot acquired Hughes Supply the largest home retailer in the United States for $3.2 billion. Hughes Supply was integrated into The Home Depot Supply to better serve business-to-business customers. The Home Depot Supply rebranded under the new name HD Supply in January 2007. Five months later The Home Depot sold HD Supply to a consortium of three private equity firms, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and
Clayton, Dubilier and Rice Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...
(with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division).


2007–present

On January 2, 2007, the Home Depot and Robert Nardelli mutually agreed on Nardelli's resignation as CEO after a six-year tenure. Nardelli resigned amid complaints about his heavy-handed management and whether his pay package of $123.7 million (excluding
stock option In finance, an option is a contract which conveys to its owner, the ''holder'', the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a specific quantity of an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price on or before a specified dat ...
grants) over the previous five years was excessive, considering the stock's poor performance versus its competitor
Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...
. His
severance package A severance package is pay and benefits that employees may be entitled to receive when they leave employment at a company unwillfully. In addition to their remaining regular pay, it may include some of the following: * Any additional payment base ...
of $210 million was criticized because when the stock went down, his pay went up. His successor, Frank Blake, previously served as the company's vice chairman of the board and executive vice president. Blake agreed to a much more conservative compensation package than Nardelli, which is very heavily dependent upon the success of the company. Although a longtime deputy to Nardelli at GE and Home Depot, Blake was said to lack Nardelli's hard edge and instead preferred to make decisions by consensus. Indeed, Blake repudiated many of his predecessor's strategies, and it has been reported that the two men have not spoken since Nardelli departed Home Depot. In 2008 and 2009, with the downturn in the housing market, The Home Depot announced the layoff of several thousand associates, as well as the closing of 54 stores nationwide, including the entire EXPO Design Center chain. Associates at EXPO were allowed to re-apply for Home Depot jobs after the
layoff A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
s, and did not lose any tenure if hired back. In the year of February 2009, sales totaled $71.288 billion, more than $20 billion down from the peak of two years earlier due to the sale of HD Supply and falling revenue at the retained business. In 2012, they proceeded to close the big-box style stores that they had in China, however smaller stores that specialized in custom products and that focused on more intimate interactions between customers and associates remain open there. In 2013, The Home Depot established two large distribution centers in Atlanta and Los Angeles. In August 2014, it was announced that Frank Blake would step down as CEO and would be replaced by 57-year-old
Craig Menear Craig Menear (born ) is an American business executive. He serves as the chairman and is the former chief executive officer of The Home Depot. Early life Menear was born in Flint, Michigan. His father worked as a tool and die maker for General ...
. The change occurred on November 1, 2014. Blake continued with the company as chairman. Menear joined The Home Depot in 1997, and served in various management and vice-presidential positions, until 2003, including merchandising vice president of hardware, merchandising vice president of the Southwest Division, and divisional merchandise manager of the Southwest Division. He subsequently served as senior vice president of merchandising from August 2003 to April 2007. He then served as an executive vice president of merchandising from April 2007 to February 2014. Until becoming CEO, Menear served as president of U.S. Retail from February 2014 to November 1, 2014. The company had a data breach in September 2014. One major reason for the data breach was the practice of entering credit card numbers directly into computers at the service-desk and pro-desk, and in specialty departments including flooring, kitchen cabinets, appliances, and millwork, rather than using POS credit card terminals directly. The practice was stopped, and Home Depot offered a year of free credit monitoring through AllClearID for any customers who requested it. There were also reports of credit card numbers being stolen when used to make purchases on Homedepot.com. On July 22, 2015, Home Depot acquired Interline Brands from P2 Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs' private equity arm, and the management of Interline Brands for $1.6 billion. Interline Brands became fully integrated with The Home Depot in August 2016 with the Interline Brands website merging with The Home Depot website. The subsidiaries of Interline Brands are now companies of The Home Depot. In 2017, Home Depot acquired the online presence of
The Company Store ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
from Hanover Direct. The Company Store was founded in 1911, operating primarily as catalog and online sales, but with five physical locations. The five physical locations were not included in the deal. In January 2022, The Home Depot announced Craig Menear would be stepping down as the CEO and president effective March 1, 2022, while continuing to serve as the chairman of the board. He was replaced by former executive vice president Ted Decker.


Finances

As of 2020, Home Depot is ranked #26 on the
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...
rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. For the Q2 of 2020, the company reported sales of $38.1 billion, which represented a growth of 23.4% from the same period, the previous year. The net earnings for the period of three months (ending August 2) rose 27% up to $4.3 billion. The growth in the sales was a result of Americans staying at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Q3 for 2020, ending November 1, Home Depot reported a revenue of $33.5 billion; it represents a year-on-year increase of 24 per cent.


Carbon footprint

The Home Depot reported Total CO2e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 31 December 2020 at 1,821 Kt (-127 /-6.5% y-o-y).Alt URL
/ref> Reported emissions have been on a declining trend since 2016.


Mascot

The Home Depot's mascot has been Homer D. Poe since 1981 when he was first used in advertising. Gwyn Raker, the illustrator, says, "I designed him to be a funny guy next door who wasn't intimidating." The Homer Fund, a for-associate charity, is named after the mascot, who since its creation, has been a part of Home Depot culture ever since. This includes signage, advertising, awards, and even a life-size costume for stores to rent out. Homer has a wife, named Daisy.


Operation

Home Depot stores average 105,000 ft2 (9,755 m2) in size and are organized warehouse-style, stocking a large range of supplies. Home Depot's two largest stores are located in
Vauxhall, New Jersey Vauxhall is an unincorporated community located within Union Township in Union County, New Jersey, United States. Vauxhall borders Millburn, Maplewood and Springfield. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP Code 07088. As ...
, which encompasses 217,000 ft2 of space, and in Anaheim Hills, California, where it encompasses 204,000 ft2. The company color is a bright orange (PMS 165, CMYK 60M100Y, HEX FF6600), on signs, equipment and employee aprons.


Contractors

Contractors make up only five percent of Home Depot's customers but they account for 45 percent of the companies $132 billion in annual sales. To address these contractor customers the company is building new flatbed distribution centers designed specifically to cater to builders that roll up in a contractor flatbed trucks.


Marketing

The Home Depot announced the new slogan "How Doers Get More Done" on December 5, 2019, replacing the previous slogan "More saving. More doing." which was introduced in the March 18, 2009, circular, replacing "You can do it. We can help." which had been used since 2003. Other slogans used in the past 25 years include "The Home Depot, Low prices are just the beginning" in the early 1990s and "When you're at the Home Depot, You'll feel right at home" in the late 1990s and "The Home Depot: First In Home Improvement!" from 1999 to 2003.


US Stores division

Long-time employee Marc Powers became the head of Home Depot's US stores division in 2014. He took the place of Marvin Ellison, who left to become the chief executive of
J.C. Penney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Girl ...
. In January 2016, Home Depot announced the departure of Powers as division head, to be replaced by another veteran employee, Ann-Marie Campbell, one of Powers' deputies. The change in leadership is effective as of February 1, 2016. Ms. Campbell has been employed by Home Depot for over 30 years, beginning as a cashier in a branch in
South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...
. Her most recent role was as president of Home Depot's Southern division.


Distribution centers

The Home Depot has over 90 distribution centers throughout the United States to serve over 2,000 The Home Depot stores.


Online

The domain ''homedepot.com'' attracted at least 120 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey. In the US HomeDepot.com has 5 Call centers located in Kennesaw, GA; Atlanta, GA; Marietta, GA; Ogden, Utah and Tempe, AZ. Home Depot online offers
in-store pickup Omnichannel retail strategy, originally also known in the U.K. as bricks and clicks, is a business model by which a company integrates both offline (''bricks'') and online (''clicks'') presences, sometimes with the third extra ''flips'' (physica ...
and online returns.


Fuel centers

In 2006, The Home Depot started testing fuel centers at some of its stores. The first two "Home Depot Fuel" convenience stores (C-Store) were located in Tennessee. Four additional prototype stores were built in Acworth, Georgia; Smyrna, Tennessee; Greensboro, Georgia; and Winchester, Tennessee. In 2012, Home Depot VP of Corporate Communication Stephen Holmes stated that the company had no plans for additional fuel centers or growth in that area.


Rental vehicles

The Home Depot offers rental vans and trucks at most of its locations.


Subsidiaries and private brands


Wholly owned subsidiaries


Blinds.com

Blinds.com is an e-commerce retailer of window blinds and window coverings.''6 Companies Owned by Home Depot''
Reiff, Nathan; 09 July 2021; article; Investopedia; on-line; accessed October 2022
Blinds.com was founded by Jay Steinfeld in 1993. By 2006, the company was named #186 on the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, as well as the 10th fastest-growing e-commerce company on the list. In 2009, Blinds.com was given the Marketer of the Year Award by the
American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from th ...
, in recognition of its innovative marketing strategy. In response to demand for window coverings that could be installed quickly and easily, CMO Daniel Cotlar led a partnership with a manufacturing vendor to design a window shade that could be installed without tools or adhesive. This led to the company's patent-pending Instafit shade product. In January 2014, Blinds.com was acquired by The Home Depot.


Compact Power Equipment Inc.

Power equipment rental company that prior to 2017 provided equipment to rental departments in over 1,000 Home Depots in North America. Acquired by The Home Depot on July 6, 2017.


Interline Brands

Interline Brands (renamed in 2018 as The Home Depot Pro) has over 90 distribution centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that serve customer needs for MRO supplies. The brands of Interline Brands include: * Wilmar Industries (MRO) * Barnett (MRO, contractor supplies) * Maintenance USA (MRO) * SupplyWorks (janitorial, packaging, MRO) * US Lock (keys, security devices) * Hardware Express (hardware supplies) * Gas Products (propane accessories)


The Company Store

Online seller of textile and textile goods for the home decor market. Originally founded in 1911 as a purveyor of home furnishings, its online division—only—was acquired by THD in 2017.


Redbeacon

Online contractor referral service founded in 2009; now called THD Pro Referral.


HD Supply

HD Supply is an industrial supply and distribution company. The company, formerly called The Maintenance Warehouse, provided infrastructure and construction support services for businesses throughout North America. Renamed as HD Supply, the business was re-acquired by THD in December 2020.


Exclusive brand names

The Home Depot exclusively carries several major brands, including: *
Chem-Dry Chem-Dry (the name stands for CHEMISTRY-DRY) is an American carpet cleaning and upholstery cleaning franchise chain with main offices in Logan, Utah and Nashville, Tennessee. History When it was founded in 1977, it was originally based in Cal ...
(carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, tile and grout services) * Behr paints * Homelite (outdoor and power tools) *
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (MSLO) is a diversified media and merchandising company founded by Martha Stewart and owned by Marquee Brands LLC since April 2019. It is organized into four business segments: publishing, Internet, broadcasti ...
(outdoor furniture, indoor organization) * Ryobi and Ridgid (power tools) *
American Woodmark American Woodmark Corporation is a kitchen and bath cabinet manufacturer headquartered in Winchester, Virginia. The company operates several manufacturing facilities and service centers. The manufacturing facilities are located in Arizona, Geo ...
cabinetry * Thomasville Furniture Industries cabinetry


House brands

Additionally, the retailer sells the following house brands: * Husky (tools) * Workforce (tools, shelving, storage cabinets, extension cords, work lights, tarps, paintbrushes) * HDX * Hampton Bay (ceiling fans, lighting fixtures, outdoor furniture) * Glacier Bay (kitchen sinks, faucets, etc.) * Commercial Electric * Home Decorators Collection


Corporate affairs


Philanthropy

The Home Depot Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the company created in 2002. It has contributed over $200 million in time, labor, money, and supplies to a number of causes, including
Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a Ch ...
, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center, and playground construction organization
KaBOOM! KaBoom! may refer to: *KaBOOM! (non-profit organization) * KaBOOM! (publisher), an imprint of the U.S. comics publisher Boom! Studios See also *Kaboom (disambiguation) Kaboom is an onomatopoeic term representing the sound of an explosion. It may ...
Home Depot supports the U.S. Military community with
10% military discount
Since 1993, the "Team Depot" program has provided grants to veteran-based organizations and has workers from a local store do volunteer work that would benefit veterans. The Home Depot has partnered with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency's
Ready Georgia ''Ready Georgia'' is a statewide emergency preparedness campaign in the U.S. state of Georgia instituted by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) and Governor Sonny Perdue in conjunction with the national ''Ready America'' campaign sponsor ...
campaign, leading both supplies and facility use to this statewide effort to increase emergency preparedness among Georgia's children. The company also provided ready kits and other prizes for an art and essay contest for Georgia elementary school students. In 2005, The Home Depot was among 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush. In March 2018, the company donated $50 million to train 20,000 people as construction workers over the next decade. The Home Builders Institute will use the money to train veterans and U.S. Army soldiers, high school students, and disadvantaged youth. The financial support from Home Depot was to help address the needs of the shortage of construction workers.


Environmental record

The Home Depot has stated on their website that they have a commitment "we continue to lead by example, demonstrating to the world that sustainability business practices are not only possible, they are good for business." The Home Depot introduced a label on nearly 3,000 products in 2007. The label promotes energy conservation, sustainable forestry, and clean water. Home Depot executives said that as the world's largest buyer of construction material, their company had the power to persuade thousands of suppliers, homebuilders, and consumers to follow its lead on environment sustainability. "Who in the world has a chance to have a bigger impact on this sector than Home Depot?" asked Ron Jarvis, vice president for environmental innovation at Home Depot. This program is following The Home Depot's promise in the late 1990s to eliminate the number of sales of lumber from endangered forests in countries including Chile and Indonesia. Home Depot has since worked with environmental groups to create a variety of green programs. For example, Home Depot planted thousands of trees at its headquarters in Atlanta to offset carbon emissions. In 2007, The Home Depot Foundation (the company's charitable foundation) committed to investing $100 million over the next decade to build over 100,000 green affordable homes and plant 3,000,000 trees. Additionally, The Home Depot promotes compact fluorescent light bulbs in its stores. As part of this effort, the company created the largest recycling program in the United States for the bulbs. In March 2013, Home Depot locations in Canada stopped accepting compact fluorescent light bulbs for recycling.


Television

In 2002, The Home Depot joined PBS as a sponsor of '' This Old House'' and '' Ask This Old House''. In 2003, The Home Depot became a sponsor for '' Trading Spaces''.


Sports

Company co-founder Arthur Blank purchased the
Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...
franchise of the National Football League in February 2002; Blank later acquired an expansion franchise in
Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...
, Atlanta United FC, in April 2014 with the soccer club beginning play in March 2017. The Home Depot made no formal association with the Falcons until April 2017, when The Home Depot acquired the naming rights to the park adjacent to
Mercedes-Benz Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in August 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it serves as the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) ...
. The Home Depot Backyard occupies the site of the former Georgia Dome, and serves as parking and tailgating space during Falcons' and Atlanta United FC home games and public use greenspace during non-event days. The park opened on September 11, 2018. Since 1991, the company has become a large supporter of athletics, sponsoring the United States and Canadian Olympic teams, and launching a program which offered employment to athletes that accommodates their training and competition schedules. The Home Depot ceased to be a sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team in 2005 and ended a sponsorship program for the United States Olympic team in 2009. The Home Depot was a major sponsor for Joe Gibbs Racing in NASCAR from 1999 to 2014. Their arrival into the series coincided with Tony Stewart leaving the Indy Racing League to join the
NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
. Stewart drove The Home Depot-sponsored No. 20 car for Joe Gibbs Racing until 2008, winning 2 of his 3 series championships in the car, and was succeeded by Joey Logano, who took the car to victory lane twice. After Matt Kenseth joined the team, The Home Depot's status as the No. 20's primary sponsor was taken over by
Dollar General Dollar General Corporation is an American chain of variety stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of April 11, 2022, Dollar General operates 18,216 stores in the continental United States. The company began in 1939 as a family-own ...
, but the company still served as its most frequent secondary sponsor through its Husky Tools division. On June 23, 2014, the company announced it would end its NASCAR sponsorship after 2014. The Home Depot was the title sponsor of The Home Depot Center in
Carson, California Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, located south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately away from Los Angeles International Airport. Incorporated on February 20, 1968, ...
, home to the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer; the venue was formerly the home of Chivas USA of MLS, which folded in 2014, and the
Los Angeles Riptide The Los Angeles Riptide were a lacrosse team based in Carson, California. From 2006 to 2008, they played in Major League Lacrosse and ceased operations before the 2009 season. Franchise history In March 2005, Major League Lacrosse, MLL announced ...
of Major League Lacrosse, which folded in 2008. The venue is now called Dignity Health Sports Park. In 2006, The Home Depot partnered with
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
's Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering to create "The Home Depot Smart Home". The smart home is a live-in laboratory for ten upper-class engineering students that allows them to immerse themselves in the work. The goal of the project is to help provide innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and home monitoring, communications, energy efficiency, entertainment, environment, and health. In January 2007, The Home Depot became the official home improvement sponsor of ESPN's College Gameday.


Politics

Seventy-three percent of The Home Depot's campaign contributions went to Republican candidates in the 2005–2006 US elections. "Home Depot's PAC gives money based on a candidate's voting record, committee assignment and leadership position," said company spokesman Jerry Shields. The CEO in this period was Bob Nardelli, a friend of U.S. President George W. Bush. Nardelli hosted a garden reception/fundraiser for Bush at his Atlanta home on May 20, 2004. According to the watchdog group Documented, in 2020, The Home Depot contributed $125,000 to the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association. In April 2021, black faith leaders in Georgia called for a nationwide boycott of The Home Depot after the company did not take a stand against the
Election Integrity Act of 2021 The Election Integrity Act of 2021, originally known as the Georgia Senate Bill 202, is a law in the U.S. state of Georgia overhauling elections in the state. It mandates voter identification requirements on absentee ballots, limits the use of ...
. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp criticized the boycott, saying "this insanity needs to stop" and contending that it "puts partisan politics ahead of people's paychecks."


Outside the US


Canada

Home Depot Canada is the Canadian unit of the Home Depot and one of Canada's top home improvement retailers. The Canadian operation consists of 182 stores and employs over 28,000 people in Canada. Home Depot Canada has stores in all ten Canadian provinces and serves territorial Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon through electronic means (Online Sales). The Canadian head office is located in Toronto. The Canadian unit was created with the purchase of
Aikenhead's Hardware Aikenhead's Hardware was a chain of Canadian hardware stores located in Greater Toronto, Southern Ontario and northern Ontario. The original store was founded in Toronto in 1830 as "Ridout's Hardware Store" by Joseph Ridout and was located on the ...
. Home Depot management had an ambitious plan to overtake its biggest competitor,
RONA Rona, RONA or Róna may refer to: Places * Rona (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood in Kristiansand, Norway *Rona (river), a river in Maramureș County, Romania *Rona, Bellevue Hill, a historic house in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill * Rona, Swit ...
, which has about four times as many stores. However, some of RONA's stores are smaller than the typical Home Depot store. In terms of big box stores, the Home Depot has more stores than RONA (not including other Rona banners such as
Réno-Dépôt Réno-Dépôt (known as Reno-Depot outside of Quebec) is a Canadian chain of home supply stores owned by Lowe's. Primarily operating in Quebec, Réno-Dépôt is a warehouse-styled format with a focus on discounted renovation and household hardware ...
or Cashway). As of 2007, RONA pulled ahead of The Home Depot in total retail sales, due to aggressive consolidation efforts by RONA, combined with the loss of The Home Depot's industrial supply division, HD Supply, in July 2007. The Home Depot now faces competition from Lowe's as they have moved into the Canadian market effective the end of 2007; Lowe's now has 35 outlets in Canada. In 2016, RONA was purchased by Lowes increasing its total store count to over 500 units. In Quebec, where it has 22 stores, The Home Depot is branded simply Home Depot (using English words but without the definite article "The"). The Canadian operation is a participant in the voluntary
Scanner Price Accuracy Code The Scanner Price Accuracy Code is a Canadian retail voluntary practice managed by the Retail Council of Canada and endorsed by the Competition Bureau. It was introduced in June 2002 as Canadian retailers were in the midst of updating their point- ...
managed by the
Retail Council of Canada The Retail Council of Canada (french: Conseil canadien du commerce de détail), founded in 1963, is a not-for-profit trade association representing retail companies in Canada. RCC coordinates advocacy, communications and education campaigns on be ...
.


Mexico

The Home Depot operates 126 stores and has become one of the largest retailers in Mexico since it entered the market in 2001. The Home Depot increased its presence in Mexico in 2004, with the acquisition of Home Mart, the second largest Mexican home improvement retailer. The Home Depot Mexico employs more than 15,000 associates throughout the country and as of the end of 2016, it had a record of 50 consecutive quarters with posted growth.


China

In December 2006, The Home Depot announced its acquisition of the Chinese home improvement retailer The Home Way. The acquisition gave The Home Depot an immediate presence in China, with 12 stores in six cities. In April 2011, Home Depot shut its last Beijing store, the fifth Home Depot to close in China in the previous two years. In September 2012, The Home Depot announced it was closing all big box stores in China. The Home Depot retained two specialty stores in China, a Home Decorators Collection Store and a paint and flooring store. As of September 16, 2012, all seven of the box stores in China had been shut down. The Home Depot has no immediate plans to further expand its specialty stores in China. The company is taking a "wait-and-see" attitude towards the Chinese market, but does not want to completely pull out because re-entry into the market would be very costly. The Home Depot's lack of success in China has been attributed to the disconnect between The Home Depot's do-it-yourself ethos and Chinese culture. In 2012, The Home Depot conceded that it misread the country's appetite for do-it-yourself products. As a spokeswoman for the company said in an interview with the ''Wall Street Journal'', "The market trend says this is more of a do-it-for-me culture." Some have speculated that The Home Depot could have offered a do-it-for-me model to Chinese consumers. Chinese consumers prefer to see a finished product, such as a renovated room, rather than light bulbs and lumber. The same issue does not exist outside of China, especially in Canada, where Chinese Home Depot advertisements and store signage can be found in areas with large Chinese demographics.


United Kingdom

There were reports that The Home Depot was interested in acquiring B&Q, the largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Speculation of a takeover began in 1999 when the retailer Asda was purchased by Walmart. The Home Depot would have to acquire Kingfisher plc, B&Q's parent company, to acquire B&Q. Kingfisher consists of several European DIY chains; however, the Home Depot was only interested in B&Q operations and says that it would dispose of the Castorama chain which operates in France, Italy, Poland and Russia. Talks ending in 2005 did not result in any takeover deal.


South America

In 1993, Home Depot opened its first and only store in Peru, however, low sales and weak promotion for the brand led to its closure the following year. In 1997, Home Depot entered the Chilean and Argentine markets. While the venture was viewed with great optimism by founders Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank, it eventually proved unprofitable. In October 2001, Chilean partners
Falabella The Falabella is an Argentine breed of small horse. It is among the smallest of horse breeds, with a height at the withers in the range .. History The ancestral stock of the horse of South America descended from horses brought to the western he ...
bought out Home Depot's share of the five Chilean Home Center stores and rebranded them Home Store. In 2003, after merging with
Sodimac Sodimac Homecenter is a chain of home improvement stores in Chile.Cencosud and rebranded Easy stores, a company that has also expanded across South America. It's the second largest home improvement company in South America.


Controversy


Whistleblower case

The Home Depot was embroiled in whistleblower litigation brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) law. In July 2005, former employee Michael Davis, represented by attorney
Mark D. Schwartz Mark D. Schwartz (born San Francisco, California, 1953) is an attorney in private practice known for his defense of whistle blowers and his handling of litigation involving the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. In addition to employment law and civil rights li ...
, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Home Depot, alleging that his discharge was in retaliation for refusing to make unwarranted back charges against vendors. Davis alleges that the Home Depot forced its employees to meet a set quota of back charges to cover damaged or defective merchandise, forcing employees to make chargebacks to vendors for merchandise that was undamaged and not defective. The Home Depot alleges that it fired Davis for repeatedly failing to show up for work. The trial initially was concluded in June 2006, but in April 2007, U.S. Department of Labor Judge Pamela Lakes Wood ordered the case reopened after the Home Depot's law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld revealed that the retail giant's in-house counsel had told them that two Home Depot employees who testified at the trial had lied. Akin Gump sent Wood a letter on September 29, 2006, in which the law firm requested that the testimony be stricken. In response to Akin Gump's revelation, Davis' attorney, Schwartz, asked for the case to be reopened to permit further questioning of the witnesses. On April 6, 2007, Wood ordered the case to be reopened. The Home Depot has settled the dispute in a stipulation of settlement dated March 28, 2008. In the settlement, The Home Depot changed some of its corporate governance provisions. The Home Depot also agreed to pay the plaintiff's counsel $6 million in cash and $8.5 million in common stock.


Patent law controversy

Powell v. Home Depot ''Powell v. The Home Depot USA, Inc.'', 663 F.3d 1221 (Fed. Cir. 2011), was a decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the issue of patent infringement on a "safe hands" device that Michael Powell, an independent co ...
USA, Inc. (2008cv61862) (2011) was a decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida concerning
patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...
on a "safe hands" device that Michael Powell, an independent contractor for Home Depot, created in response to injuries to the hands of associates using in-store radial arm saws. The district court jury returned a verdict in favor of Powell. In 2011, Home Depot appealed against the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, challenging the district court's denial of its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law on the issues of infringement, willfulness, and damages. They also challenged the district court's claim construction, inequitable conduct, and attorney fees determinations. The appellate court found no inequitable conduct and insufficiently egregious misconduct on the part of Powell's attorney.


Tilt-up construction design of stores

In the wake of the
2011 Joplin tornado A devastating EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on the evening of Sunday, May 22, 2011. Part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak, the tornado touched down just west of Joplin and intensified very quickly, reaching a ...
in which the walls of a Home Depot collapsed after being hit by an EF5 tornado, '' The Kansas City Star'', citing engineers, criticized Home Depot's practice of using
tilt-up Tilt-up, tilt-slab or tilt-wall is a type of building and a construction technique using concrete. Though it is a cost-effective technique with a shorter completion time, poor performance in earthquakes has mandated significant seismic retrofit r ...
construction in hundreds of its big-box stores (other nearby big-box stores in Joplin, including a Walmart and Academy Sports + Outdoors, which had concrete block construction, lost their roofs but the walls remained intact). In tilt-up construction, the concrete is poured onsite, lifted into place, and then attached to the roof. The engineers told the ''Star'' that the practice, while normally safe and efficient, is dangerous in major storms because once the roof is lifted (as happened in Joplin) the walls collapse in a domino effect. Seven people were killed in the front of the store when the 100,000-pound walls collapsed on them, while 28 people in the back of the store survived when those walls collapsed outward. Only two of the slab walls in the Home Depot survived. In contrast, three people died in the Walmart but 200 survived. Engineers noted that when concrete block construction fails, structural elements break in pieces and usually not in huge slabs. Home Depot said it fundamentally disagreed with the engineers quoted by the ''Star'' and said it would use tilt-up construction when it rebuilds the Joplin store.


Payment-system breach

On September 2, 2014, security news reporter Brian Krebs reported that he was seeing evidence of credit card numbers linked to Home Depot purchases being sold online, which he concluded to suggest that The Home Depot's payment systems were breached by hackers. On September 8, 2014, Home Depot confirmed that their payment systems were compromised. According to their press release, this breach affected any customers who made purchases at any Home Depot store from April 2014 to September 2014. Home Depot offered its affected customers a free one-year credit monitoring service from AllClear ID. Also in their press release, they made sure to emphasize that there was no evidence to suggest that online customers were affected by the breach. On September 18, 2014, Home Depot released a statement saying that the hackers obtained a total o
56 million credit card numbers
as a result of the breach. Since the breach, Home Depot has rolled out new encryption technology for its cash registers and self-checkout systems to protect customers. A class-action lawsuit was filed against the company. In March 2016, Home Depot agreed to pay at least $19.5 million to compensate the more than 50 million consumers affected. The settlement terms included a $13 million fund to reimburse shoppers and a $6.5 million fund for cardholder identity protection services.


EEOC disability discrimination suit

In September 2012, Home Depot agreed to pay $100,000 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for the alleged failure to provide a reasonable accommodation for a cashier with cancer at its Towson, Maryland, store and then for purportedly firing her because of her condition.


Lead paint

In December 2020, The Home Depot was fined $20.75 million for lead paint violations. Elevation of
aminolevulinic acid δ-Aminolevulinic acid (also dALA, δ-ALA, 5ALA or 5-aminolevulinic acid), an endogenous non-proteinogenic amino acid, is the first compound in the porphyrin synthesis pathway, the pathway that leads to heme in mammals, as well as chlorophyll in p ...
from lead-induced disruption of heme synthesis results in
lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...
having symptoms similar to
acute porphyria Porphyria is a group of liver disorders in which substances called porphyrins build up in the body, negatively affecting the skin or nervous system. The types that affect the nervous system are also known as acute porphyria, as symptoms are ra ...
. Lead poisoning is associated with long-lasting, negative consequences for the development of various aspects of the body, especially the brain: the mental health and personality can be greatly altered by lead poisoning during its development.


See also

* Menards, privately held American chain of home improvement centers that competes with The Home Depot in the Midwestern United States.


References


External links


Home Depot, Inc.
(corporate website)
Home Depot USA
(retail website)
'How I Built This'
podcast – live episode! The Home Depot: Arthur Blank – audio interview with co-founder {{DEFAULTSORT:Home Depot, The 1978 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Companies based in Cobb County, Georgia Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Hardware stores of Canada Home improvement retailers of the United States Hardware stores of the United States Hardware stores of Mexico Industrial supply companies American companies established in 1978 Retail companies established in 1978 1980s initial public offerings