Home Depot Research Paper
The Home Depot
Jonathan Stiffler
MKTG 1010
June 27th, 2013
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank founded the Home Depot in 1978. Along with investment banker Ken Langone and merchandising expert Pat Farrah, the founder’s vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer became a reality when they opened the first two Home Depot stores on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. The first stores, at around 60,000 square feet each, were enormous warehouses that dwarfed the competition and stocked 25,000 SKUs, much more than the average hardware store at that time. Empty boxes piled high on the shelves gave the illusion of even more product and in only one year they opened a 4th store in Atlanta and the company had annual sales …show more content…
The general idea was thought of in 1978 when Home Depot aligned to sell only BEHR paints and BEHR was to only sell their products through Home Depot. This allowed Home Depot to utilize BEHR as a private label brand without having to build/purchase the proper facilities to produce the paint. The end result allowed them to offer a private label brand (often referred to as a “store brand”) that was up to par, if not better then many national brands. They have this same exclusive sales agreement with many private merchandise producers such as; Martha Stewart Living, Hampton Bay ceiling fans, Chem-Dry cleaning chemicals and GAF Roofing. Not only did Home Depot pursue these companies to turn them into in-house brands, they also created three of their own private label brands that are shown around the store. These include Husky Tools, Workforce Tools & Accessories and Glacier Bay …show more content…
Home Depot has direct rivals, such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, True Value and Menards; as well as many indirect rivals that are starting to branch into the home improvement category. This means that Home Depot is also competing with Supercenters like Wallmart. The two stores have a very different approach, however. The Home Depot stores are laid out like warehouses, with open metal shelving where potential customers can see product as far as the eye can see. All of the aisles are cleanly swept, wide and made of concrete so customers can push large flatbed carts around the store, easing access to larger items such as water heaters, storm doors or even bags of salt to keep snow off of driveways. Their aisles are also crawling with well trained, knowledgeable sales staff that are there solely to help you make the right decisions for what you what for your home. Walmart does not offer this feature, and they do not have stores designed to draw in contractors. Home Depot makes it easy for do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors to find everything they need within a few aisles. Walmart may be able to offer lower bottom-line prices on the home improvement items they sell, but they do not offer the same level of customer service or depth of product. Also, Home Depot has the awareness to plan out far in advance where its stores are going to be placed. The store that I am visiting
Jonathan Stiffler
MKTG 1010
June 27th, 2013
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank founded the Home Depot in 1978. Along with investment banker Ken Langone and merchandising expert Pat Farrah, the founder’s vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer became a reality when they opened the first two Home Depot stores on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. The first stores, at around 60,000 square feet each, were enormous warehouses that dwarfed the competition and stocked 25,000 SKUs, much more than the average hardware store at that time. Empty boxes piled high on the shelves gave the illusion of even more product and in only one year they opened a 4th store in Atlanta and the company had annual sales …show more content…
The general idea was thought of in 1978 when Home Depot aligned to sell only BEHR paints and BEHR was to only sell their products through Home Depot. This allowed Home Depot to utilize BEHR as a private label brand without having to build/purchase the proper facilities to produce the paint. The end result allowed them to offer a private label brand (often referred to as a “store brand”) that was up to par, if not better then many national brands. They have this same exclusive sales agreement with many private merchandise producers such as; Martha Stewart Living, Hampton Bay ceiling fans, Chem-Dry cleaning chemicals and GAF Roofing. Not only did Home Depot pursue these companies to turn them into in-house brands, they also created three of their own private label brands that are shown around the store. These include Husky Tools, Workforce Tools & Accessories and Glacier Bay …show more content…
Home Depot has direct rivals, such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, True Value and Menards; as well as many indirect rivals that are starting to branch into the home improvement category. This means that Home Depot is also competing with Supercenters like Wallmart. The two stores have a very different approach, however. The Home Depot stores are laid out like warehouses, with open metal shelving where potential customers can see product as far as the eye can see. All of the aisles are cleanly swept, wide and made of concrete so customers can push large flatbed carts around the store, easing access to larger items such as water heaters, storm doors or even bags of salt to keep snow off of driveways. Their aisles are also crawling with well trained, knowledgeable sales staff that are there solely to help you make the right decisions for what you what for your home. Walmart does not offer this feature, and they do not have stores designed to draw in contractors. Home Depot makes it easy for do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors to find everything they need within a few aisles. Walmart may be able to offer lower bottom-line prices on the home improvement items they sell, but they do not offer the same level of customer service or depth of product. Also, Home Depot has the awareness to plan out far in advance where its stores are going to be placed. The store that I am visiting