133 Home Depot Facts: Timeline, Items, And Other Interesting Trivia

The one place that comes to mind while looking for items to furnish the house is Home Depot.

Home Depot Stores are a combination of convenience stores and hardware stores. Home Depot stores are divided into different categories, kitchenware, home decor, paint, flooring, and hardware to name a few.

Read on for some interesting aspects related to the workings of the company.

Fun Facts About Home Depot

At Home Depot, customers not only get to buy good quality products of their choice, but they also get training from employees in cases where power tools or heavy tools are involved.

Home Depot runs a business in many states and countries outside America.

Home Depot's locations include Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and China before they were closed.

Home Depot’s slogan is' Build From the Scratch’ and that’s exactly what they sell, from nails to fancy carpets.

The early signage was made from the discarded circus tents which were of orange color.

This way orange became Home Depot’s color.

When Home Depot was first opened, owner Bernie Marcus used to conduct surveys in the parking lot of the stores asking customers informally why they didn’t purchase anything.

They reviewed the feedback of the customers and bought items from their competitors then repriced them and sold them directly to the customers who couldn’t find the things they were seeking.

Home Depot has always preferred box-style warehouses The average size of the Home Depot stores is estimated to be 1,05,000 sq ft (9,755 sq m).

The largest Home Depot is located in Union, New Jersey which is 2,25,000 sq ft (20,903 sq m) in size.

The second-largest Home Depot store is in California with a floor area of 2,04,000 sq ft (18,952 sq m).

A big warehouse is a necessity for Home Depot in order to store kitchenware, home decor, lawn equipment, and hardware tools for which it is immensely famous.

To make a good impression on the customers and to give their depot a proper warehouse look, they kept empty boxes on the top shelves and stocked product boxes on the lower shelf.

The trick was implemented to advertise their business as successful in the beginning. They have nearly 2,200 stores in North America.

A cat named 'Depot' was living inside the South Carolina Warehouse for over a decade in the year 2014.

The cat used to set the security alarms off causing a lot of problems.

It was then decided that the cat be evicted but an online petition forced the decision to be changed.

Home Depot sources its products from a number of locations.

Most of the primary suppliers are located in North America.

Some of the products are also sourced from Asia, especially from China.

Home Depot is an American company with a wholly-owned subsidiary Home Dept Canada operating in Canada.

Home Depot carried over 36,000 products in most of its warehouses.

Home Depot is now one of the ten largest retail chains in the world.

There is one Home Depot Studio that is open only to cast and crew members of movie studios.

The only private Home Depot store is located in Fayetteville, Georgia's Pinewood Studios.

This store provides all the popular suppliers required for movie sets.

This store was set up after the company realized those movie studios spend over 30% of their budget on construction material.

Home Depot once decided to enter the consumer retail market by opening convenience stores.

There are several brands that are exclusively sold in Home Depot.

Home Depot’s Timeline

Home Depot was founded by Pat Farrah, Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, and Ron Brill in 1978 with the motive to build a home improvement store, larger than any of their competitors.

In 1979, Home Depot bought the land on lease which was meant to be a hypermarket from JCPenney.

Two stores were opened simultaneously in Atlanta, the first store opened in Doraville and the second in Decatur.

The management faced several difficulties in deciding the name of the company.

As per experts, the management initially thought of naming the stores as 'Bad Bernie's Buildall'.

Over a period of four decades, Home Depot saw many ups and downs before becoming the largest retailer of home improvement items.

In the beginning, Home Depot had its stores opening up in Miami and Hollywood.

By 1984, Home Depot was running 19 stores generating revenue of nearly $256 million.

Home Depot decided to expand its store in Dallas. However, the ambition came with the cost of $200 million.

Their stock price dropped as well as their net sales by 42% due to the decision.

Home Depot was running a business with only 10 stores open in the mid-'80s.

In 1989 Home Depot surpassed Lowe and earned the title of the largest home improvement store.

In 1994, Depot purchased a popular hardware company from Canada, ‘Aikenhead's Hardware’.

The company was purchased for $150 million dollars.

Home Depot became the owner of more than 349 stores with sales reaching $10 billion in 1994.

In 2000, Robert Nardelli became the CEO of The Home Depot.

In his six years tenure, he rebranded ‘The Home Depot Supply’.

It was previously known as Apex Supply and Maintenance Warehouse.

In 2012 big box-style stores in China were closed after opening up in 2006.

The company purchased the leading maintenance warehouse in San Diego in the late '90s.

Home Depot stepped into the Mexican market in 2001. The company ventured into the home decoration department as too.

Frank Blake was appointed as the new CEO in 2007 and 54 stores were shut down.

Two prominent distribution centers were started in the year 2013.

These centers were opened in Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Craig Menear became the CEO in August 2014 after serving in many senior positions in the company.

The same year a major mishap of data breach happened. Credit card numbers were stolen while shopping from the Home Depot’s official website.

Home Depot presently operates over 2,200 stores across North America and regions of Latin America,

The company owns over 70 distribution centers in the US.

Contractors are the biggest customers of Home Depot.

They comprise only 5% of total customers but contribute almost 45% to the revenue of the company.

Home Depot is opening several stores dedicated to home contractors.

These stores will allow builders in roll-up trucks to conveniently purchase the supplies.

Items You Can Find In Home Depot

Home Depot is famous for its wide variety of home improvement items.

Home Depot is loved by DIY enthusiasts, especially for small building projects and home makeovers.

Usually, the products found on Depot’s shelves are tools, equipment, decorating items, plumbing pipes, faucets, and every single item that can be classified under house improvement.

Brands such as Ryobi tools, Ridgid tools, are sold exclusively at Home Depot along with the LG appliances and Toro Lawn equipment.

Other brands available are American Woodmark Cabinetry, Hampton Bay, Glacier Bay.

Home Depot started ‘The Home Depot landscape supply’ in 2002 to trade in unique plants and increase their growth in the plant nursery segment.

The stores were opened in Dallas and Atlanta. However, it didn't last that long.

The Home Depot Landscape Supply was dissolved in 2007.

Home Depot has tried to venture into other businesses and many didn’t work in their favor.

They had planned to open retail chains and fueling stations, unfortunately, these businesses failed too.

Home Depot’s Employees

More than 3,50,000 employees work at Home Depot in the United States.

The employees were offered to form a union but they turned down the proposal.

Home Depot’s workers wear orange aprons which they are free to design to match their personality.

In 1992, Home Depot launched its Olympic Job Opportunity Program.

Not only did Home Depot support the Canadian and American Olympic players, they even employed them to boost the morale of the employers as well as to encourage other workers.

Over the two decades after the launch of the program, Home Dept offered employment to over 570 Olympians.

Employees get many benefits working at different Home Depot locations.

Home Depot’s part-time employees get dental, vision, and medical payment plans.

Full-Time employees get life insurance, disability, and accidental death plans.

They also offer insurance plans for dependent members of the family.

Employees get paid leaves, personal days off, sick leaves.

Home Depot’s full-time workers can also claim Auto and Home insurance coverage.

Other benefits include adoption assistance, special needs dependence assistance, and Tax preparation discounts too.

At every Home Depot store, essential facilities are available for all the employees

Home Depot Vision

Home Depot offers DIY clinics, customer workshops, and interactive sessions with customers.

The motive behind this initiative was to give the best experience to the customers as well as to ensure their safety while carrying out tasks using heavy machinery.

This company lives by the ideology of ‘Whatever It Takes’.

To implement this ideology, Home Depot came up with a customer bill called ‘Bill Of Rights’ that safeguards the interests of customers with the best price, assortment, and quality.

In 2002 The Home Depot Foundation was established.

The idea of the foundation was to give back to society by giving financial support through sponsorships. Home Depot also promotes sustainability and energy efficiency.

Since 2016, the Depot has been trying to reduce its carbon footprint and a positive decline has been observed.

Along with that, their foundation’s goal is to plant 3,000,000 trees and build 1,00,000 green homes in the upcoming years.

Home Depot is the market leader in the home improvement business.

The Home Depot Foundation has donated more than $200 million to non-profit entities.

For charitable causes, Framing Hope Program has contributed over $100 million worth of supplies.