Posted on 05/01/2008 12:46:30 PM PDT by kingattax
So far, 2008 hasn't been a banner year for Home Depot.
In January, the Atlanta-based home improvement retailer laid off 500 people from corporate headquarters.
In February, it announced its first ever year over year sales decline.
In April, it announced the net loss of 970 jobs from reorganizing its human resources staff.
And today, it announced it is closing 15 stores, affecting 1,300 employees. Plus, the Home Depot is suspending the development of 50 stores. The 15 targeted stores are mostly in the Northeast and Midwest, from New Jersey to North Dakota. No Atlanta stores are scheduled to close.
"Closing a store is always a difficult decision because it affects both our people and our
communities," Home Depot CEO Frank Blake said in a statement. "But, as with our decision to slow future store growth, this is the right decision and will bring long-term benefits to our associates and to our shareholders. ... By building fewer stores, in the best locations, and making sure our existing stores are profitable, our company will be in a much stronger competitive position."
The home improvement chain has blamed the slowdown in the housing market and the sluggish economy for its retail woes.
Home Depot will record a $586 million pre-tax charge related to the store closings and the 50 shelved stores. That includes $8 million for severance and $11 million for inventory markdowns. Home Depot hasn't revised its earnings forecast for fiscal 2008 to reflect the $587 million charge. Earnings per share from continuing operations are still expected to decline 19-to-24 percent. Analysts have forecast earnings per share of $1.65 to $1.86 , down from $2.27 a year ago.
Home Depot said it will cut capital spending by $1 billion over the next three years and focus on existing stores, as well as possible share repurchases. Home Depot still expects to build 55 stores in 2008, 36 in the United States. The chain currently has 1,970 U.S. stores.
Ron DeFeo, a Home Depot spokesman, said the 15 stores slated to close will remain open for seven weeks and have liquidation sales. The stores' management teams will be offered new jobs and the remaining employees can apply for jobs at other Home Depot stores. Employees that aren't placed will receive severance pay.
Home Depot stock was up in inter-day trading Thursday to $30.18, up $1.38 over Wednesday's close.
I think it has to do with customer service. Lowe’s is much better.
Amen...
Our local HD many times only has the self service registers open. The manager is an idiot.
In other news....ILLEGALS HARDEST HIT WITH HOME DEPOT ANNOUNCEMENT OF STORE CLOSURES. SOB STORIES AT 10:00.
“Our local HD many times only has the self service registers open.”
Same here...and often they don’t work, forcing you to go find a human being.
And heaven forbid you need help finding something....
and if you do find someone, they know what they’re doing.
They can close all of them, as far as I’m concerned. Just another impersonal big box. I made the mistake of having a service done by Home Depot (via some company they subcontracted it through) a few years back and it was a nightmare. Better to go through a reputable local firm or your local long-time hardware store.
Home Depot had a semi-OK reputation before Robert Nardelli took it over and ruined it.
I can only say in NJ I find the Lowes workers to be totally uninterested and uninformed, whereas in Home Depot they run around telling you what you need and how to do the project. But I hear the opposite on the news and here as well.
Maybe they drove customers away by letting these day laborers hang around and harass customers, pee in the parking lot, etc.
Just sayin’.
I guess that’s why they didn’t build a new HD near the new Lowe’s nearby.
I prefer lowes anyway. All that orange stuff is ugly. Orange is a tough color.
HD outlets seem universally cluttered and illogical. In my observation, Lowe’s has more logical aisles (that seem wider), cleaner stores, better lumber selection, deeper selection of tools and better-informed staff.
“And heaven forbid you need help finding something....
and if you do find someone, they know what they’re doing.”
We still have a local hardware store that seems to have survived the HD and Lowe’s onslaught. I’d much rather go there, even though his prices are little higher...the knowledge he and his employees have is second to none.
LOL - I wonder where they will gather at 6 AM now, waiting for day work.
Interesting - I think people are buying fewer big-ticket items like washers and dryers. I have to believe that the markup on those items is tremendous - especially the new "high-efficiency" front-loaders.
HD has gone to crap.
Their prices are too high especially considered how junky their inventory has become, their service is non existant. They have removed so many products from their inventory over the last few years that its virtually a wasted trip to even stop into an HD because its very likely if you are looking for anything oustide the norm they won’t have it.
The products they do carry are bland and beyond basic, but priced far too high.
Lowe’s has a much better selection of most things, and while things may be a little more pricey, the value per dollar is much higher. Can save $5 on a ceiling fan by going to HD and get a junky base white mode, or spend $5 for a styled one from Lowes.
I too favor Lowes. But it sure isn’t for the customer service. Our Lowes has got to have the worst customer service I’ve seen in a loooong time.
I went in one evening to buy a wet saw for cutting tile (about $200). There was one in a box on the floor but the end of the box was crushed and there were some broken pieces of plastic visible through the opening in the box. I looked up and there was a nice fresh clean box sitting up on the top shelf. I looked around and saw three employees at the desk right there in the flooring department so I went over and asked if anyone could help me get the box down from the upper shelf.
The manager of the department, looked at me, looked up at the box and then started taking his little red vest off and said it was after 8:00 and he was officially off work.
I thanked him, asked his name and walked right to the store manager’s office. He disappeared for a few weeks until I walked into another Lowes in the area and saw him working in that store’s flooring department.
“I think people are buying fewer big-ticket items like washers and dryers. I have to believe that the markup on those items is tremendous - especially the new “high-efficiency” front-loaders. “
Speaking of those, I read somewhere that the front loaders use a special kind of soap...can’t just use any old detergent. Is this true?
Hear you there!
I quit going to HD when they put up bilingual signs in the aisles.
That's a big negative - I used HD's self-service register once. It was as complicated as the 1040 tax form, and not user-friendly at all. It took longer than if I went to the regular register.
The only way I'd do that again is if it gave me a discount, and that's not going to happen.
Same here, which in turn drags it out even longer since the clerk is clueless...
I'm not going to laugh about HR folks getting the axe. I am NOT. Really.
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