The Home Depot is the U.S. retail sales company in the field of construction, building and household goods. The industry is retail of construction and decoration of houses. It sales construction materials, household appliances, furniture, paint, plumbing, flooring, garden supplies and construction services.

The company was founded in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The slogan of it - "You can do it. We can help".

Head office is in Vinings, Georgia - a suburb of Atlanta, in Cobb County. The company trades through the 2164 Home Depot locations, organized for the average buyer. There are Home Depot locations in Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and China.

Home Depot locations do the largest sales of the building materials in the U.S. (the closest competitor is Lowe's) and the company is the second overall merchant after the Wal-Mart.

Home Depot locations shares are included in the index of industrial enterprises of 30 Dow Jones.

Statistics. Frank Blake is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. The number of employees is 355 000. Turnover - ,837 billion (2006). Profit - ,761 billion (2006).

Bernie Marcus was president of the Handy Dan division - daughter of Daylon corporation. He had a hard relationship with the owner of the parent company Sandy Sigoloff. Marcus had a dream to build a super-store of building materials. Sigoloff suspected the conspiracy of Marcus and his friends to stay away from the foul company and began to mock opponents. After several years of Sigoloff ‘s bullying in 1978 Marcus persuaded his friend to sell his shares which should reassure Sigoloff. However, Sandy Sigoloff decided to turn their lives into hell, destroying them emotionally and financially, to intimidate other potential "traitors." Marcus with his friends was dismissed from the company. When Bernie Marcus called his friend with the news, he replied: "Bernie! You’ve just got a kick in the ass by the golden horseshoe! This is the great opportunity! Now you can open a shop, a dream that you suggested in Houston!"

The Home Depot locations appeared in 1978 in Atlanta with the help of Bernie Marcus and his comrades. Goods were stored directly on floor. Size of the stores were more than rivals. Goods have been placed by experts who were willing to provide information to buyers.

The success was the Home Depot locations were discovered by the Pat Farr who helped to gain 3000 stone screens for and wanted to sell them for at the regular price of 9 for the screen. Bernie agreed to this proposal, counting these 100 thousand dollars. Pat had lost. The product was advertised and sold in Home Depot locations for 4 days. This sale has established a successful practice of selling the company.

The Home Depot locations grew rapidly. The sales exceeded billion per year already in 1986. In 1997, Home Depot locations appeared in Chile and Argentina. All nine locations opened there were sold in October 2001. In 2000, after retiring Marcus and Blank, Robert Nardelli was appointed as the chairman of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer. In January 2007 he was replaced by Frank Blake.

The Home Depot employs more than 355.000 workers, there are 2.114 Home Depot locations operating in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and China. HD is the second largest retailer after Wal-Mart in the U.S. and third in the world after Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour.

Business activities

Home Depot locations do not have space for materials storage. Trading is carried out by daily deliveries of materials. Home Depot locations have their own construction crews that can install any goods the customer has purchased. Store customers are building contractors (who receive 10% discount) and ordinary house owners.

A few weeks ago the news of a joint pilot project of PayPal and Home Depot appered. Now the Home Depot claimed that PayPal payment technologies are available to all visitors 51 Home Depot locations in the U.S..

On the part of PayPal address five hundred thousand U.S. PayPal users received an invitation to make purchases in Home Depot locations in the Bay area and pay for their account in the system PayPal (also available through mobile devices). Some locations are in Atlanta others are in Omaha. After shopping at Home Depot PayPal offers customers to make theit opinion about it.

Expansion of the pilot is an important step toward Home Depot to change the future of trade, by making payments available anytime and anywhere.

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