Home Depot Executive Summary

Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the world. Their goal is to provide a large selection of products to their large customer base at competitive prices. Home Depot was established in 1978 by Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank. These two men were relieved of their jobs as managers for the Handy Dan home center chain, after a major corporate downsizing within the management department. These two men took their knowledge and know-how for home improvement and opened their own home improvement store. Home Depot opened two stores the summer of 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia. At this time they did not have the financial backing to open a store at that size with a lot of products on their own, so Home Depot partnered with a New York

There was also a 33 percent increase in the DIY market which leads to a 38 percent sales increase. Home Depot stock did not grow in 1993 due to the increase in large warehouse mega stores that sold similar home improvement items. So they went back and reviewed ways the organization could stand out from the competition. They developed a three-tiered strategy plan that included; price, assortment, and service. Along with this plan, they tested several non-traditional store designs they thought would help increase sales. They sampled the installation program. The installation program consists of doors, windows, and carpet that is installed by Home Depot employees, which later became a part of all store locations. They also sampled bridal registries, drive in lumber services which help customers select the type of lumber needed for their project with the convenience of close parking to load their lumber purchase, and delivery services. In 1995 Home Depot opened their first 24-hour store and published their first home repair book, Home Improvement 1-2-3. While expanding in the U .S, Home Depot also expanded outside the United States borders and purchased seven Aikenhead's Home Improvement Warehouse stores in Canada for $161.5 million and later converted them into Home Depot Stores. As they continued

After these projects were completed, Home Depot implemented new ventures that would attract new customers such as the Design Center in North Carolina that focused on women shoppers with high-end merchandise design and decor. They also added a 6000 square foot Smart Home, designed to showcase new innovative products that doubled as housing for 10 engineering students that do research for Home Depot. By 2010 Home Depot had a total of 2,245 operating stores. Because of operational differences, Home Depot was forced to close all its stores in China, closing the last store in 2011. In 2012 they began to sell well-known home appliances such as Frigidaire and Electrolux. In 2014 CEO Frank Blake retired and Craig Menear became the new CEO. Under the new CEO Home Depot confirmed that in 2014 their payment data systems was breached, which potentially impacted customers who used payment cards at self-checkout systems in the U.S. and Canadian stores. Since the breach, Home Depot completed a major payment security project that provides enhanced encryption of payment card data at the point of sale in all of the U.S. and Canadian stores. They also rolled out EMV chip card technology in the U.S. stores, which adds extra layers of payment card protection for customers who use EMV enabled chip