Home Depot
Home Depot is a publicly traded home improvement retailer headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and was co-founded in 1978 by Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank. The company is recognized as the largest DIY and home improvement retailer in the world, operating over 2,300 stores across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and employing approximately 500,000 individuals. Home Depot offers an extensive product range, with more than 35,000 items available in its stores and over a million products accessible online. The company gained significant attention with its initial public offering in 1981 and has consistently ranked among the top companies in the Fortune 500 list.
Notable for its commitment to customer service, Home Depot has established a "customer bill of rights," ensuring a wide variety of products at competitive prices, along with expert guidance for DIY customers. The company has also been involved in philanthropy, supporting various community initiatives, disaster relief efforts, and military veterans. Co-founders Marcus and Blank are active in charitable giving, having committed to the Giving Pledge. With a strong emphasis on employee welfare and community engagement, Home Depot continues to be a prominent player in the retail industry.
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Subject Terms
Home Depot
Company information
- Date founded: 1978
- Industry: Retail; home improvement
- Corporate headquarters: Atlanta, Georgia
- Type: Public
Overview
Home Depot is a publicly traded home improvement franchise headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2021, the company operates more than 2,300 stores throughout North America and maintains locations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Home Depot opened its first store in Atlanta in 1979, the year after it was co-founded by entrepreneurs Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank. Home Depot is the world’s largest do-it-yourself (DIY) and home improvement retailer.
As of 2023, Home Depot had over 2,300 retail locations that combine to employ approximately 500,000 people. Home Depot stocks more than 35,000 products at its physical retail locations and offers consumers access to more than one million products through its online sales portal. The company finished in 17th place on the 2022 edition of Fortune magazine’s annual Fortune 500 list of the largest and most valuable US companies. Shares of Home Depot became available to the general public in September 1981 and trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
History
The Home Depot story began in April 1978, when Marcus and Blank were both fired from their executive positions at a regional home improvement retail chain. According to Home Depot’s corporate website, Marcus and Blank conceived their vision for Home Depot at a Los Angeles coffee shop, intending to build a network of large, well-stocked stores that would be staffed by specially trained DIY experts and offer a wide range of merchandise at low prices. They incorporated Home Depot in Delaware on June 29, 1978. One year later, after securing venture capital and merchandising support, Marcus and Blank opened two Home Depot locations in Atlanta, which would become the first of thousands of stores. In 1981, after two years of strong sales growth, Home Depot marked two major achievements. The retailer opened its first locations outside of Georgia by launching two new stores in neighboring Florida. It also completed an initial public offering (IPO) of company stock, which originally traded on the NASDAQ exchange before moving to the NYSE. The IPO raised approximately $4.1 million. Expansion into California followed in 1985, and by 1988, Home Depot was included in the Standard and Poor 500 (S&P 500) index that tracks the financial fortunes of 500 major US companies.
By the end of the 1980s, Home Depot had expanded to more than one hundred locations. It established its position as the world’s largest home improvement and DIY retailer by the early 1990s and entered the Canadian market in 1994 when it acquired the Toronto, Ontario-based retail chain Aikenhead’s Hardware. In 1996, Home Depot marked another milestone when it posted a string of record financial results extending across forty consecutive financial quarters, or ten full years. Marcus retired as Home Depot's chief executive officer (CEO) in 1997, handing leadership of the company to Blank. Blank remained Home Depot CEO until his retirement in 2001.
In 2002, Home Depot completed another international expansion when it opened its first locations in Mexico after buying out a small Mexican regional DIY chain, Del Norte. By 2005, Home Depot counted 2,000 locations in its portfolio. That year, the company also completed an aggressive series of acquisitions by buying out more than twenty suppliers and home services companies. In 2007, Home Depot began its move into the online retail sphere, updating its information technology (IT) capabilities and developing mobile applications. Three years later, the company debuted one of its most successful marketing ploys to date by launching its Spring Black Friday promotion, an extended sale intended to replicate the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday retail event in spring.
In 2020, Home Depot elected to cancel its annual Spring Black Friday event amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. In its annual review of Home Depot for the 2021 edition of its Fortune 500 list, Fortune magazine noted the company’s decision met with a positive response, while competitors such as Lowe’s invited backlash by going ahead with their in-store spring sales. In 2023, Home Depot announced that despite slowing sales and record inflation, the company was investing $1 billion dollars focused solely on raising employee wages.
Impact
Home Depot has built significant brand recognition with its iconic orange-and-white color scheme. In 2020, Forbes ranked the company in thirty-fourth place in its annual World’s Most Valuable Brands review. Home Depot also placed thirty-second that year in the publication’s list of the World’s Best Employers, owing to its positive work environment, commitment to promoting from within, prioritization of gender representation at all levels of the company, and provision of thorough training in keeping with its founding mission of providing exceptional, expert customer service. Marcus and Blank also developed a unique “customer bill of rights,” which guaranteed consumers would find a wide assortment of products at the industry’s most competitive prices every time they visited a Home Depot location. The mandate also included a pledge to offer complete instruction to DIY customers of all skill levels, with store associates providing detailed product handling and installation demonstrations, instructional clinics and workshops, and one-on-one learning sessions.
Over its history, Home Depot has also displayed a strong commitment to philanthropy and community service. Among many disaster relief initiatives in response to events like the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the devastating Hurricane Katrina of 2005, Home Depot has provided strong support to military veterans through various programs and community initiatives. Co-founders Marcus and Blank have both committed to the Giving Pledge, a campaign among members of the globe’s wealthy elite to give away at least half of their fortunes to charitable causes and philanthropic enterprises. Marcus joined the Giving Pledge in 2010 and has since donated more than $1 billion of his personal wealth. Blank has given away over $600 million since joining in 2012.
Bibliography
"About Us." The Home Depot, corporate.homedepot.com/page/about-us. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.
“Arthur Blank.” Forbes, 9 Aug. 2021, www.forbes.com/profile/arthur-blank/?sh=6ae3ab14749c. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
“Bernard Marcus.” Forbes, 9 Aug. 2021, www.forbes.com/profile/bernard-marcus/?sh=526a27237de6. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
“Built From All the Right Materials.” Home Depot, 2021, corporate.homedepot.com/about. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
“History of the Home Depot.” Home Depot, 2014, corporate.homedepot.com/sites/default/themes/thd/images/timeline/History-Of-The-Home-Depot.pdf. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
“The Home Depot Announces Latest Carbon Emission Reductions, New Supplier Diversity Spending Goal and Progress on Community Investments in 2022 ESG Report.” The Home Depot, 28 July 2022, r.homedepot.com/news-releases/2022/07-28-2022-130228237. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.
“Home Depot—2021 Fortune 500.” Fortune, 2021, fortune.com/company/home-depot/fortune500/. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
“Home Depot Inc. Company Profile.” CNN Money, 6 Aug. 2021, money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=HD. Accessed 9 Aug. 2021.
Mullaney, Tim. “What Home Depot's Billion-Dollar Pay Raise May Help Prove About Workers.” CNBC, 30 Apr. 2023, www.cnbc.com/2023/04/30/what-home-depots-billion-dollar-pay-raise-can-prove-about-workers.html. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023.