82 Fun Facts About Home Depot

Home Depot's founders wrote which 1999 memoir?

Built from Scratch, written with Bob Andelman, is subtitled 'How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion.'

In which metro area did The Home Depot open its first two stores in June 1979?

Atlanta, where its warehouse stores were built larger than any competitor's and dwarfed the competition.

Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank founded The Home Depot after being fired from which chain?

Handy Dan, where Marcus was CEO and Blank ran finance until Daylin chief Sanford Sigoloff fired them both in 1978.

Which investment banker organised the financing that let Marcus and Blank found The Home Depot?

Ken Langone, who had earlier persuaded Ross Perot to let his firm handle the IPO of Electronic Data Systems.

What is The Home Depot's signature colour, used on signs, equipment and employee aprons?

Orange, officially PMS 165 (hex FF6600); one British DIY rival even changed its corporate colour to the same shade in the 1990s.

What is the name of the cartoon character used in The Home Depot's advertising since 1981?

Homer D. Poe, whom illustrator Gwyn Raker designed to be a funny guy next door who wasn't intimidating.

On which exchange did The Home Depot first go public, in September 1981?

NASDAQ, where the offering raised just $4.093 million; the company moved to the New York Stock Exchange in April 1984.

In 1989 Home Depot overtook which rival to become the largest home improvement retailer in the US?

Lowe's, overtaken barely a decade after Home Depot opened its first two stores in 1979.

Which US state was the first outside Georgia to get Home Depot stores, in 1981?

Florida, where its first out-of-state stores opened in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale.

The Home Depot entered Canada in 1994 by buying a 75% stake in which hardware chain?

Aikenhead's, bought from brewer Molson for $150 million; its stores were later converted to Home Depots.

Where is The Home Depot headquartered?

Cobb County, Georgia, where the company calls its head office the Store Support Center.

Which privately held home improvement chain, based in Wisconsin, competes with Home Depot in the Midwest?

Menards, still owned by its founder John Menard Jr., is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Which longtime Home Depot finance chief became CEO of UPS in 2020?

Carol Tomé, who joined Home Depot in 1995 and was its CFO from 2001 to 2019, had sat on the UPS board since 2003.

Which former General Electric executive became Home Depot's CEO in December 2000?

Robert Nardelli, who had just lost the three-way race to succeed Jack Welch as GE's chief to Jeff Immelt.

In 2020 Home Depot agreed to pay a record $20.75 million penalty for breaking rules on what during home renovations?

Lead paint: the EPA found its contractors often lacked certification, skipped lead-safe work practices and failed to clean up afterwards.

After leaving The Home Depot in 2007, its former CEO became chairman and CEO of which automaker?

Chrysler, which he ran from August 2007 to April 2009, through the carmaker's bankruptcy.

Which lawyer and former GE executive became The Home Depot's CEO in January 2007?

Frank Blake took charge after his predecessor resigned amid complaints over his huge pay package.

Who became CEO and president of The Home Depot in 2022?

Ted Decker, announced in January 2022 after 22 years with the company; he added the chairman's title that October.

Home Depot's 2014 breach exposed 56 million cards, more than the 40 million compromised in which retailer's 2013 hack?

Target, whose breach was broken by security reporter Brian Krebs, the same journalist who first spotted Home Depot's stolen cards in 2014.

Which slogan did The Home Depot adopt in December 2019?

How Doers Get More Done replaced 'More saving. More doing.', which the company had introduced in a March 2009 circular.

Since 2007, The Home Depot has sponsored which ESPN college football pregame show?

College GameDay, which ESPN officially brands as 'ESPN College GameDay built by The Home Depot'.

Jurors awarded $15 million after Home Depot copied a contractor's guard for which in-store tool?

Radial arm saws: Michael Powell developed his guard after workers were injured on them, then Home Depot had another company build near-identical copies.

In 2017 Home Depot bought which bedding and bath brand, founded in 1911?

The Company Store, an online seller of bedding and bath textiles; its five retail stores were left out of the deal.

Which of these paint brands is sold exclusively at The Home Depot?

Behr, owned since 1999 by Masco, makes the paints, primers and stains sold exclusively at The Home Depot.

Which of these tool brands is a Home Depot house brand?

Husky, a tool line founded in 1924 that is now sold only at Home Depot, which owns the name.

Home Depot's viral 12-foot Halloween lawn decoration, first sold in 2020, is a giant what?

Skeleton: fans nicknamed it Skelly, and demand has been so strong that it keeps selling out before Halloween.

Which NASCAR driver won two of his three championships in the Home Depot No. 20 for Joe Gibbs Racing?

Tony Stewart, who won the 2002 and 2005 titles in the No. 20, then a third in 2011 after leaving to co-own his own team.

Which retailer took over from Home Depot as main sponsor of Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 car?

Dollar General, which backed Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 from 2013 to 2016; Home Depot ended its NASCAR sponsorship after 2014.

The Home Depot Center in Carson, California, opened in 2003 as the home of which MLS team?

LA Galaxy, who moved there from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena; the venue is now called Dignity Health Sports Park.

Which NFL franchise did Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank buy in February 2002?

Atlanta Falcons, which he bought from Taylor Smith, son of team founder Rankin Smith.

The Home Depot Backyard, a park beside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, sits on the site of which demolished venue?

The Georgia Dome, imploded in November 2017, less than three months after Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened next door.

Bernard Marcus's roughly $250M gift largely launched which downtown attraction in 2005?

The Georgia Aquarium, the world's largest aquarium from its 2005 opening until Singapore's S.E.A. Aquarium surpassed it in 2012.

In which New Jersey city was Bernard Marcus born in 1929?

Newark, where his Russian Jewish immigrant parents raised four children in a tenement.

Which power tool brand, licensed from a Japanese manufacturer, is sold only at Home Depot in the US?

Ryobi, whose tools are actually made by Techtronic Industries, which uses the name under license from Japan's Ryobi Limited.

Arthur Blank graduated in 1963 from which Massachusetts college known for teaching entrepreneurship?

Babson College, ranked No. 1 for entrepreneurship by U.S. News for decades, now has an Arthur M. Blank Center on campus.

Home Depot's EXPO Design Center chain closed during which crisis?

The 2008 housing crash: as the housing market deteriorated, Home Depot announced in 2009 that it would close the entire EXPO Design Center chain.

Which lifestyle mogul's company announced outdoor furniture and home organization lines for Home Depot in 2009?

Martha Stewart: her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, also developed kitchen cabinets and decor products for the chain.

In 2024, The Home Depot agreed to buy which company for $18.25 billion?

SRS Distribution, a roofing and building-products distributor based in McKinney, Texas.

Which window-coverings e-commerce retailer did The Home Depot acquire in January 2014?

Blinds.com, founded by Jay Steinfeld in 1993, had been named the American Marketing Association's Marketer of the Year in 2009.

Home Depot's 2006 purchase of The Home Way gave it an immediate presence in which country?

China, with 12 stores in six cities; all of its big-box stores there closed in 2012.

Which British DIY chain copied the Home Depot store design and even its corporate colour in the 1990s?

B&Q; Home Depot was reportedly interested in buying it, which would have meant acquiring parent company Kingfisher.

Which two PBS shows did The Home Depot begin sponsoring in 2002?

This Old House and Ask This Old House, the PBS pair that The Home Depot underwrites alongside GMC.

The Home Depot's Team Depot programme gives grants and volunteer help to organisations serving which group?

Veterans, with store associates volunteering on projects that benefit veteran-based organisations.

Which university's Pratt School of Engineering opened 'The Home Depot Smart Home', a live-in student lab?

Duke University, where ten engineering students a year live in the lab while researching new technology for the home.

In 1999 Home Depot joined which famous stock index as Sears was dropped from it?

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Home Depot, Microsoft, Intel and SBC joined on November 1, 1999, replacing Sears, Goodyear, Union Carbide and Chevron.

Which Quebec-based DIY chain rivals Home Depot Canada?

RONA, based in Boucherville, Quebec, returned to private ownership when Sycamore Partners bought it in 2023.

Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus earned his pharmacy degree at which New Jersey university?

Rutgers University; Marcus had been accepted to Harvard Medical School but couldn't afford the tuition, so he became a pharmacist.

Which MLS club played at Home Depot Center before folding in 2014?

Chivas USA, a sister club of Mexico's C.D. Guadalajara, played in Carson from 2005 until MLS dissolved it in 2014.

Which 2009 Cup rookie took over Home Depot's No. 20 car?

Joey Logano, who later moved to Penske Racing and won Cup championships in 2018, 2022 and 2024.

Who became CEO of The Home Depot in November 2014?

Craig Menear, who joined in 1997 and rose through merchandising; he stayed on as chairman after handing over the CEO job in 2022.

The Home Depot's first two stores opened in 1979 in spaces leased from which department store company?

J. C. Penney, whose buildings had housed its Treasure Island hypermarkets, a mix of discount department store and grocery.

In 2020 Home Depot paid $8 billion to buy back which business it sold in 2007?

HD Supply, which Home Depot had sold to Bain Capital, Carlyle and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice to fund a stock buyback.

Home Depot invested more than $87 million in Gulf Coast rebuilding after which devastating 2005 hurricane?

Katrina prompted the investment in 2006, a year after the storm. By 2013 the retailer was hosting more than 700 hurricane workshops from Texas to Maine.

In 2002 Home Depot became the first major home improvement retailer to install which customer-operated machines?

Self-checkouts arrived in 2002, and by 2010 the chain was also the first brick-and-mortar retailer with apps on the top three smartphone platforms.

Which Sweet Home Alabama actor became the voice-over artist behind Home Depot's television and radio advertisements?

Josh Lucas narrates the retailer's TV and radio spots, and in 2022 he voiced Benjamin Franklin's son William in a Burns documentary.

In 2003 Home Depot became a sponsor of which TLC show where neighbours redecorate each other's rooms?

Trading Spaces gave each two-person team two days and a $1,000 budget, a format borrowed from the BBC series Changing Rooms.

From the 1990s Home Depot hired athletes on flexible schedules while sponsoring US and Canadian teams at which event?

The Olympic Games sponsorship ended in 2009, when Home Depot also closed the jobs programme whose adverts promised shoppers help from gold medalists.

Home Depot became the founding partner in 1996 of a national nonprofit that builds what for children?

Playgrounds are the speciality of the nonprofit, called KaBOOM!, and in 2005 the two launched a $25 million drive to build 1,000 of them in 1,000 days.

Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank dreamed up Home Depot in 1978 over a coffee shop table in which city?

Los Angeles was where both men had just lost their jobs at a rival chain; they searched nationwide for a site before opening their first warehouses a year later.

Which Home Depot house brand is best known for ceiling fans, lighting fixtures and outdoor furniture?

Hampton Bay is a private label: the retailer owns the name but, as with its other house brands, does not manufacture any of the goods itself.

Home Depot was incorporated in June 1978 in which state favoured by American corporations for registration?

Delaware received the incorporation papers on June 29, 1978, eleven weeks after the founders were fired and a year before any warehouse opened.

Home Depot Canada, which has stores in all ten provinces, keeps its head office in which city?

Toronto houses the Canadian head office; the three northern territories have no stores and are served through online sales instead.

Beyond Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, Home Depot operates big-box stores in which Pacific island territory?

Guam sits on a short list with Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia: places beyond the fifty states with a Home Depot.

What did Home Depot call the sales event it debuted in 2010, billed as a first in retail history?

Spring Black Friday arrived the same year the chain put its handheld FIRST Phone devices into American stores.

The Home Depot Center soccer stadium in California was renamed in 2013 for which online ticket marketplace?

StubHub put its name on the venue in a multi-year deal, and in 2019 the stadium changed names again, this time for a healthcare provider.

Ann-Marie Campbell, who rose to run Home Depot's US stores, joined the company in 1985 in which part-time job?

Cashier was her college job; after a 1992 hurricane destroyed a branch, she ran it from the parking lot with mobile cash registers.

Bernie Marcus's $25 million donation in 2005 established which advocacy organisation?

Autism Speaks was started by a couple whose grandson had been diagnosed a year earlier, and Marcus sat on its board for some years.

Home Depot's founders promised shoppers the best assortment and price in a charter named after which American document?

Bill of Rights was the founders' name for the customer charter, which also guaranteed the help of a trained sales associate on every visit.

Home Depot created the largest recycling programme in the United States for which type of light bulb?

Compact fluorescent bulbs could be handed in at the chain's stores, though its Canadian branches stopped accepting them in March 2013.

After a 2011 EF5 tornado flattened a Home Depot, engineers criticised its tilt-up concrete walls in which Missouri city?

Joplin's branch reopened in a temporary building within weeks; the company disagreed with the engineers and kept the tilt-up method for the rebuild.

Bernie Marcus hoped to be a doctor but lacked the money to take a place at which university's medical school?

Harvard was the school; by Marcus's own account the place came at a price the cabinet maker's son, raised in a tenement, could not pay, so he trained as a pharmacist.

Home Depot's 2000 choice of chief executive had just lost a three-way race to succeed which General Electric boss?

Jack Welch let him go once the succession was settled, and a Home Depot job offer reached him about ten minutes later.

Which statistics-driven management method used at General Electric did Home Depot's chief executive impose after 2000?

Six Sigma underpinned an overhaul that swapped the chain's entrepreneurial culture for one focused on relentless cost-cutting.

Home Depot's first Tool Rental Center opened in 1995 in which southern city?

Nashville got the first rental counter in 1995, the same year the Home Improvement 1-2-3 book put associates' advice on shelves.

Home Depot established its e-commerce site in 2000 with test markets in which desert city?

Las Vegas shoppers tried the site first in 2000, and by 2011 it let customers buy online and pick up or return in store.

The banker who financed Home Depot's founding gave his name to the medical centre of which New York institution?

NYU added his surname to its medical centre, and a $100 million commitment from him in 2018 helped make tuition free for its medical students.

Home Depot dropped to secondary sponsor of the No. 20 car when which 2003 NASCAR champion joined the team?

Matt Kenseth took his 2003 title with a single race win, after holding the top of the standings for 33 consecutive weeks.

Home Depot is the exclusive retailer of power tools from which brand, best known for its red pipe wrenches?

Ridgid issued a pin-up calendar for decades until 2016; its early editions were drawn by George Petty, and Raquel Welch later posed for it.

Home Depot's management model puts customers on top and the chief executive at the bottom of what?

Inverted pyramid is the founders' image: front-line associates sit just below customers, and headquarters, called the Store Support Center, sits near the bottom.

Which turnaround boss, later nicknamed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy rescues, fired Home Depot's future founders in 1978?

Sanford Sigoloff was restructuring the parent conglomerate at the time and set out to fire more than half of its 16,000 employees.

Home Depot introduced which low-cost house brand in February 2012 to replace its Workforce label?

HDX took over from the Workforce name on budget goods in 2012; Kobalt, Hart and Bauer are sold by rivals Lowe's, Walmart and Harbor Freight.

Which private equity firm joined Carlyle and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice in buying Home Depot's wholesale arm in 2007?

Bain Capital took a one-third stake alongside Carlyle and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice; thirteen years later Home Depot bought the business back.