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The Home Depot is the first name that comes to our mind when it comes to home improvement. The American company is the largest seller of home improvement items that include hardware tools, construction products and a lot more. Headquartered in Atlanta, it is the largest retailer in the United States.
If you are a regular at The Home Depot and wish to know more about your favorite store, here we present some fab things about the company that you probably did not know.
Read on about 30 amazing things that you didn't know about The Home Depot:
1. Home Depot opened its first 2 stores in 1979. The spaces were leased from J. C. Penney, which were basically hypermarket stores.
2. On September 22, 1981, that is, within 2 years, the store went public on the NASDAQ and it raised $4.093 million.
3. It was during the same year (1981), that Home Depot started to branch out by opening stores in Hollywood as well as Ft. Lauderdale.
4. Home Depot became a part of the New York Stock Exchange by April 19, 1984.
5. By 1984, the store had already opened 19 stores and its sales were higher than $256 million.
6. The same year, on Oct. 31, Home Depot acquired Bowater Home Center, to mark its entry into the Dallas market.
7. The growth rate of The Home Depot is amazingly high. And, it not only surpasses the growth rate of Target and Best-Buy, but also that of Walmart.
8. In the year 2000, Robert Nardelli, the former CEO of General Electric was appointed as the CEO and the President of The Home Depot.
9. The Home Depot has been a sponsor of the Canadian and the United States Olympics teams, till the year 2005.
10. The employees of The Home Depot are great athletes or sports person as the store's employees are the holder of the highest number of Olympic medals, in comparison to other companies.
11. In the year, 2013, The Home Depot added only one store in the United States, while its rival, Lowe's added a store in 300 locations. But, inspite of this fact, the revenue growth of The Home Depot surpassed that of Lowe's over the past 5 years.
12. The price tags of the products available at The Home Depot are unbeatable. No competitor offers the products at such low prices. If you ever find a store offering something at a price lower than its price, all you have to do is carry the ad or a photo of the ad to their store for an additional 10 percent discount.
13. If you make a purchase at The Home Depot of more than $45, you are eligible for a free home delivery. So, you can leave the hard work of carrying the heavy home improvement products and just sit back as it will come to your doorstep.
14. The store offers daily deals for its customers. So, a visitor at the store can avail the amazing deals at The Home Dept to reap in more savings.
15. In case you see a damaged package of a product, you can ask for an additional 10 percent discount.
16. The price tags of products at The Home Depot reveal a lot about the price of the product that it is or will be on the coming days. For instance, if the price ends with 0.03, you can expect the price to drop by 3 cents in six weeks' time, if it is available. And, if the price ends with 0.06, the product is up for a clearance sale.
17. The Home Depot is extremely efficient, when it comes to returns on investment as it made a just from 28 percent to 31 percent, last year.
18. In most of The Home Depot stores, you will find a rack of paints that were requested by customers, but since it did not turn out to be as required. If it suits your requirement, you can grab it at a highly discounted price.
19. With the 30 days price protection that The Home Depot offers, you can opt to get a discount on a product that went on sale after you made the purchase. If the gap is within 30 days and if you have the receipt, you can avail the discount too.
20. Some The Home Depot stores accept coupons of its competitors. You can surely ask if the store near you accepts it to avail the discount.
21. The online site of The Home Depot, attracts more than 120 million visitors each year.
22. In the year 2011, The Home Depot entered the e-commerce industry and it accounts for 6 percent of its sales, unlike that of its rivals, which is 4 percent, making store a leader in the e-commerce segment.
23. The Home Depot management prefers to reap the benefits of low interest rate and it carried over a debt of $20 billion.
24. The boom of the home improvement industry during the 1990s fueled the growth of The Home Depot.
25. The Home Depot had acquired Aikenhead's Hardware, a Canada based, hardware chain, in the year 1994. The store acquired 75 percent of the share for 150 million. Later, all the Aikenhead's stores were converted to The Home Depot stores.
26. Rather than buying the costly equipments, which you will probably need for only one project, you can rent them for a couple of days. Check online about its availability and also the rent amount.
27. The Home Depot plans to extend its reach by diversifying to newer segments, rather than opening new stores. And, for this, it is planning to include professional contractors and maintenance and repair operations.
28. In February, 2002, The Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank purchased the NFL team, Atlanta Falcons. However, it was only in 2017 that the company associated with the team, after it acquired the naming rights of the 13-acres park that is adjacent to the Falcon's new stadium.
29. The home improvement sponsor for ESPN's College Gameday since the year, 2007 is The Home Depot.
30. In collaboration with Duke University's Edmund T. Pratt Jr. School of Engineering, the company created the "The Home Depot Smart Home," which is a live-in laboratory for engineering students.
