Home Depot Failure

Home Depot is the household home improvement retailer that we all know today but it wasn’t easy to get to where they are now. The powerhouse had to go through many ups and downs before it was able to become what it is today. Before starting in Atlanta, Home Depot’s had to go through the four P’s of marketing to decide what company they wanted to be. When Arthur Blank, Benard Marcus, Kenneth Langone and Pat Farrah decided to start home depot they wanted it to be a bigger version of the mom and pop store (Handy Dan) they had previously worked for. The group decided that their products would be home improvement supplies. The second P (price) is what separated them from the competition, they prided themselves on their low prices, which would bring customers in the door. Promotion in the 70’s wasn’t easy but they did what they could, through paper ads and radio shows they were able to promote their stores and products. Their place was decided upon Atlanta because of it large population and potential for home improvement needs.
Through all of the growth and success of Home Depot there have been many failures that the company has endured in its life.

In the beginning stages of the company they had failed to bring in customers and could not turn a profit, losing one million dollars at the end of the first year. Once success started to come upon them home Depot ran into the problem of the orange plague. Which is essentially putting local mom and pop stores out of business angering many Americans. While this event put them in a bad light, it didn’t help when 3 people were killed from accidents at the stores. All of these failures were challenging to overcome, as the media was becoming a bigger and bigger deal, but their biggest failure I would say is their failure to succeed in China. The week.com says, “Home Depot announced that it would close all seven of its big-box stores in China, all but ending an investment that will cost the company some $160 million”. This is the company’s worst investment and there are many theories why they didn’t pan out, but Home Depot has moved on and still has a store in every state in the United States as well as stores in China and Puerto Rico.
Although there were failures in Home Depots journey, there were many successes as well.

Even though they lost one million after the first year, Home Depot went on to profit one million dollars after the second year. They are also pride themselves on paying their employees very well and creating a great work environment. After just a few years of opening up shop they cracked the one billion dollar mark. When the Olympics was in the United States, Home Depot sponsored the games and provided jobs for the athletes who could not afford training. After the games were through, Home Depots employees won a total of 58 medals.

Home Depot has been through many successes and failures on it climb to the top of the Home improvement retail industry. However going through these challenging and thriving times has made them who they

are.