Today, The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer with approximately 475,000 orange-blooded associates and more than 2,300 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
As the world's first and second-largest home improvement retailers, Home Depot and Lowe's share many similarities. They compete for a shared customer base across the U.S. and Canada.
The Home Depot has been recognized on Fortune's 2023 Most Admired Companies list, ranking #1 in the specialty retail category and #20 overall. Fortune worked with Korn Ferry, surveying 1,500 companies and determined the best-regarded companies in 52 industries.
Home Depot's two largest stores are located in Vauxhall, New Jersey, which encompasses 217,000 ft2 of space, and in Anaheim Hills, California, where it encompasses 204,000 ft2.
Difference in stores and real estate
Lowe's stores average about 112,000 square feet of enclosed space and approximately 32,000 additional garden center areas. Home Depot alternatively has around 105,000 square feet of enclosed space and a slightly smaller garden area (24,000 square feet).
In 2022, Home Depot's annual sales amounted to over 157 billion U.S. dollars, whereas its main competitor, Lowe's, reached more than 97 billion U.S. dollars of sales.
Based on the table, Home Depot had higher revenues than Lowe's and a higher 10-year growth rate. Besides that, Home Depot was superior to Lowe's in all sales metrics except average ticket size, with higher sales per store, sales per retail square foot and customer transactions.
Home Depot is primarily owned by institutional investors like The Vanguard Group (9%) and BlackRock (6.8%) while top individual investors comprise Craig A. Menear, chairman, and the former chief executive officer; and chair, president, and CEO Edward P. Decker.
By then the Chinese economy had started to experience a slowdown, which impacted retail sales adversely. Despite its best efforts, Home Depot's stores could not generate the kind of returns that it expected. It closed five stores between 2009 and 2011, and decided to concentrate on the remaining stores.
Home Depot top selling categories are: Indoor Garden: 9.52% of total revenue ($14.99 billion) Appliances: 9.18% of total revenue ($14.46 billion) Electrical/Lighting: 8.73% of total revenue ($13.74 billion)
Hedge funds don't have many shares in Home Depot. The Vanguard Group, Inc. is currently the company's largest shareholder with 9.4% of shares outstanding. BlackRock, Inc. is the second largest shareholder owning 7.5% of common stock, and Capital Research and Management Company holds about 5.2% of the company stock.
Home Depot makes money by selling consumer goods and related services in the home improvement sector. The company earns through selling products and offering installation and fitment services to its clients.
97% of Home Depot's revenue in 2021 was generated through merchandising and 3% from Services. Net sales for fiscal 2021 increased $19.0 billion, or 14.4%, to $151.2 billion.
Only Lowe's carries in-house brands like Stainmaster carpet, allen + roth home decor and Project Source kitchen cabinets. The Home Depot, on the other hand, is known for its proprietary brands, including Behr Paint, ChemDry carpet stain removers and Ryobi tools — it also has a top-notch home decor department.
Home Depot missed revenue expectations and lowered its fiscal year sales forecast. Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said customers are buying fewer big-ticket items, such as patio sets and grills, and taking on smaller home improvement projects.
Sales were disappointing, mainly due to lumber deflation and weather in the quarterly period. The results and uncertainty in demand going forward led the company to lower forward guidance.
A JP Morgan research note from May put Home Depot's total sourcing exposure to China at 16% — 11% on list three. “We know down to the SKU level the point of origin, the classification of the tariff, the potential impact.
One benefit to shopping at Lowe's over Home Depot is that the price match policy allows customers to price match Amazon products, while Home Depot's policy is limited to brick-and-mortar stores. Lowe's customers can enroll in the Lowe's rewards program to get a variety of free, incentivized, or discounted products.
Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus cofounded Home Depot in 1978 after being fired from their jobs at a regional hardware store. Blank retired as Home Depot's co-chairman in 2001 and bought the NFL's Atlanta Falcons for $545 million in 2002 (his stake's now worth $1.8 billion).
More than 50 years before Home Depot opened its doors, Lowe's began as a small-town North Carolina general store. In addition to sewing supplies, horse tack, and snuff, L.S. Lowe's original 1921 store also sold hardware and building materials.
The Home Depot makes $431.2M in a day.
Additionally they both require large lots and both companies evaluate the market for the most profitable locations in any city. As a result of these factors, both home depot and Lowe's often decide that the best locations for their stores are in similar locations.