Talk:Home Depot

B&Q

Does anyone know the official license details for the picture of B&Q I put on this entry? I want to keep that image really, or at least one similar to it in terms ofa B&Q Warehouse. —This unsigned comment is by TR Wolf (talk • contribs) .

I'm not sure if a picture of B&Q is really relevant to this article. You might want to add it to the B&Q article though. I've also removed some of the language that implies that B&Q is simply the UK version of The Home Depot. There is no actual corporate connection between the two retailers (This Feb 2006 article discusses the lack of a bid from Home Depot to buy B&Q [1]). -- Bovineone 06:27, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

The picture could be relevant to show how similar the two retailers are, but no its not essential. I dont think the B&Q link needed removing though. Anyone who's been round both retailers knows how incredibly identical they are.—This unsigned comment is by TR Wolf (talk • contribs) .

As an example, the Pepsi article doesn't have an "external link" to the base of Coca-Cola's main website or have pictures of Coke just because it is similar--if someone really wanted to find out more about Coke, they could follow the internal links or "See also" for Coca-Cola. It is fine to have an external link to a webpage that discussed Coke if it also discusses Pepsi in comparison, however. -- Bovineone 03:12, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Apparently User:71.193.240.164 feels even more extreme about B&Q even being mentioned at all, and removed the B&Q section entirely[2]. -- Bovineone 18:39, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Stock

The Home Depot's Stock Symbol is HD. --Patricknoddy 20:21, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Add it to the article, then. But don't add the external link; let people choose their own stock price tracker. —Morven 22:12, Aug 25, 2004 (UTC)

Building Size

I'm not sure where this number of 109,000 square feet comes from. The Home Depot has two prototypical sizes for their floorplans, one approximately 102,000 (actually 102,215) square feet with an approximately 35,000 (actually 34,643) square foot Garden Center. The other is approximately 115,000 (actually 114,700) square feet with a Garden Center of the same size as the previous. There is a rectangular version of the 102k floor plan, and a square version, and each floor plan has a mirrored equivalent. Of all the different shapes and sizes, the rectangular 102k floor plan is the version most commonly chosen just because it seems to fit most easily on most sites.

The Home Depot also has a habit of buying the cheapest possible land to build on. The Home Depot in Colma, California, for example, is built on a landfill. VanGarrett 06:54, 8 September 2005 (UTC)

To try to answer the 109,000 square feet issue it looks like the average of the two floor plans were taken. If you look at the article it does state "averaging 109,000 ft² (10,000 m²) and warehouse-style" floor plan.

Any discussion of controversies around Home Depot operations?

I feel the following section of the comapny bio is out of place & borders on commentary. Perhaps it shouldn't be included in the opening information but elsewhere in the page... "The Home Depot is also one of the most expensive retailers for home construction supplies. One example cites a customer in the city of San Luis Obispo, California who spent upwards of 200 dollars for just six feet of red oak, a hard wood (Citation needed). It is even worse in smaller towns, where The Home Depot has forced the local 'mom and pop' stores out of business in what is sometimes known as "The Wal-Mart Effect." 192.251.125.85 23:47, 12 March 2007 (UTC)Calif Girl

I don't know the current state of play of the controversies around Home Depot and tropical wood products, that's why I came to this article; it'd be nice to have some info about that. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 204.186.117.179 (talk • contribs) .

Ive also come to this page looking for enviromentalist stuff/PETA stuff on Home Depot, because ive heard it so much yet there is no info on it here.64.252.14.189 02:45, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

• Perhaps one operational issue that I'm aware of is the agressive introduction of automated cashier kiosks in many Home Depot stores. Since this was a potentially controversial HR issue, documents were sent out to shareholders last year to say that this automation would not displace any human jobs, and those personnel would simply be redeployed to assist customers on the floor instead. However I cannot attest to whether that actually has resulted in any measurable service improvement. -- Bovineone 03:32, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

I can say from personal experience that it has worsened customer service, at least with respect to getting through the checkout line in any kind of reasonable time frame after choosing your merchandise and bringing it to the front. I don't know if this policy is the same at other Home Depot stores, but the one in East Palo Alto never has more than one staffed cash register in operation at any given time, forcing customers to use the self-checkout kiosk, whether they want to or not.

There was a controversy in Mountain View, California about a proposed Home Depot store in 2002. The city's voters eventually passed a referendum preventing Home Depot from building its planned store on the lot formerly occupied by an Emporium Capwell department store, so the landowner sold the land to a medical clinic instead. However, I think the objection was to the large amount of traffic and noise that the store would bring, which is a common complaint about all big box stores, not just Home Depot. --Coolcaesar 05:16, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Home Depot encounters a lot of that sort of thing in California, actually. They've developed a habit of taking over abandoned K-marts, though these attempts often become rather arduous. The city of Huntington Beach, California, for example, seems to have concluded that they'd prefer to keep their abandoned K-mart, as Home Depot has already purchased the land and has been trying to take over the site since early 2004. The city of Thousand Oaks, California has cropped up similar difficulties (I have personally worked as a draftsman on both of these projects, though I no longer work at that particular Civil firm). I also spent several months developing site plans for a location in Sutter Creek, California, a small city that was actually fairly agreeable to having a Home Depot, but Home Depot eventually backed out, largely due to difficulties with an emergency access easement, steep slopes requiring the building of an absurdly large retaining wall, and probably most importantly, an adjacent land owner who absolutely did not want such a store at that location. Last I knew, they were entertaining their alternatives in other nearby cities, such as Jackson, California, where the sites have deposits of arsenic.--VanGarrett 09:40, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I just wanted to add that the controversy surrounding the proposed Home Depot in Sunland-Tujunga should be mentioned. The story of this controversy also exists as an external link on the Home Depot page at Wikipedia. (JB)--Explodingsun 00:10, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

I added the bit about the drugs getting found in stuff people were buying from Home Depot. It'd be interesting to see how that plays out.
JesseG 23:13, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

I've deleted the following image/text because it's just silly nonsense. There are many other retailers with "Depot" in their name, such as Office Depot -- Bovineone 04:06, 24 June 2006 (UTC):

The "pot in vanity" event is another piece of evidence that God puts cryptic messages in everyday logos that predict the future. In the Home Depot logo, if Depot is divided into "De" and "Pot", it is conclusive that "De" (which is Spanish for "of") causes the actual planned name of the chain to be "The House of Pot".'

The Home Depot has another nickname in the world of standup comedy the same way it has on Wal Mart. Some of its' disgruntled ex-employees call Home Depot, the "homeless depot" due to their terribly low wages they pay out to a point they lost their homes or moved into lower-cost housing (trailers and motels). Some states' Home Depots (mostly in the South and Midwest US) failed to provide inadequate benefits in terms of health care, sick leave and seniority...the kind of situation the company experienced in Chile, Argentina and parts of Canada in the 2000's (no longer in South America, because of the historical power and influence in socialist-based labor unions). The Home Depot was horribly criticized for selection of Mexico and China over let's say Europe and Japan as potentially "good" markets...but the reasons behind the choice of new markets have to do with...obviously, labor union power is considered low in "free market" China and "real capitalist" Mexico. The Home Depot is in trouble in environmental regulations as the company is said to have over 500 (or thousands) of major US EPA violations last year alone. The company's marketing campaign to advertise how "green" and "eco-safe" Home Depot is, makes me wonder if it's mismanaged by uber-corporate executives want to avoid following the most basic environmental laws and regulations. +

I'm more interested in the work lines it has going for illegal immigrants, particularly in California. This is a big issue locally: there have been protests at Home Depots where work lines are formed, and some franchises have even gone so far as to build shelters for the day workers, further pissing off the anti-illegal-immigrant crowd. --Cuervo from 76.212.169.115, not logged in, 03:48, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Theme Music

Does anyone know who wrote that theme music that home depot uses? —This unsigned comment was added by K8cpa (talk • contribs) .

Ken Harrison wrote Home Depot's commercial spots for the 1997 Summer Olympic Games and their Winter Olympic spots for their Winter '98 Games [3]. -- Bovineone 02:58, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the debate was moved. Jonathunder 23:44, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Proposed move

The Home Depot to Home Depot. Most people searching for this store will type "Home Depot" in the search box. Sun is at Sun, not the Sun, moon is at moon, not the moon, white house is at White House, not the White House, so Home Depot should be at Home Depot, not The Home Depot. Helicoptor 13:26, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Survey

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one sentence explanation and sign your vote with ~~~~

• Oppose. --Dhartung | Talk 17:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support -- there is a redirect, now, which is how I found it, but "The Home Depot" is silly, as nobody says that. People say "Coke" instead of "The Coca-Cola Corporation," you know? Better to go with the short name anyway, as entries beginning with "The" are frowned on to begin with. 69.227.234.134 01:35, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support --- Virtually everyone that gets here for the first time, gets here through the redirect. Voortle 02:45, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
• Support Per above. Oh Crap 16:35, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Discussion

• Comment. The formal name of the company is "The Home Depot, Inc." [4]. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies) doesn't address this but does encourage lopping off the Inc. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (definite and indefinite articles at beginning of name) encourages including it if it would normally be included, as in the name of an artwork or band. We don't really have a rule for something where "The" is in the formal title but is normally dropped in conversation (everybody I know says "I'm going to Home Depot"). But I don't see that the search box rationale is important by comparison, when you're changing the formal name of something -- that's what redirects are for. --Dhartung | Talk 17:42, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
• Comment: Some of the comments at Talk:The CW Television Network#Requested move, bring back "The" may be relevant here. My view is that if the official brand name includes a "The", the title should reflect that, notwithstanding alternate uses by the company and others. However, from what I understand several Quebec stores are "Home Depot" without a "The", probably due to language differences, so I'll stay neutral for now. — stickguy (:^›)— home - talk - 01:03, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

If I'd come across this sooner, my argument would have been there are no signs that say "the moon" or "the sun," but most (I can't say all, I haven't seen every store) says The Home Depot. But I digress...--Attitude2000 21:04, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Picture Notes

(moved from article space to here)

Please note: The captions for these pictures are actually incorrect. The newer store design has the glass atrium in the front and the older design generally has black doors and no glass atrium. The newer store has a 12' roof instead of the 16' roof that the older stores did.

I assumed there was no "newer" design; the only different design I've seen from what is declared "older" is one that's part of an outdoor mall with high-class shops and a movie theater.--Attitude2000 21:01, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Home Depot/Lowe's Proximity

Where I live, it seems as though everywhere you see a Lowe's, a Home Depot is not far by, most of the time within viewing distance. Is this common anywhere else?--Attitude2000 21:02, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

In my area, it's not like that. Lowe's and Home Depot are very distance from each other.

Sounds kind of like how you see a Burger King, there's never a McDonald's far off, and vice versa. Not a rule or an exception, I don't think. Probably a reason for it, but hell if I know. --Cuervo as 76.212.169.115, not logged in 03:44, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Ken Langone

I got to this article through the Eliot Spitzer article.

The article on Ken Langone claims he co-founded Home Depot.

This article has barely any mention of him.

I have no stake in it either way. Just wanted to point it out.

Langone was an investor: "Ken Langone, Home Depot's lead director and the investor who had given Marcus and Blank the seed money to launch their first stores in Atlanta..."[5]Jvandyke 18:11, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Someone needs to correct the Langone article then, which still lists him as co-founder.

Langone was indeed a co-founder, long described as such by both Bernie and Arthur, as were Pat Farrah and Ron Brill (neither of whom I noticed as referenced at all in the article). None of the three was as instrumental or as publicly visible as Marcus and Blank, but each served a unique and important role. Irish Melkite 11:08, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

Section removal

The below text was removed w/o comment by user:Novaguy1968. Should this be put back in? --mav 16:51, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Illegal Drugs Found in Merchandise

In June, 2006, illegal drugs were found inside some Home Depot merchandise from stores in Massachusetts. One customer found two fifty-pound bricks of marijuana with a street value of nearly $145,000 inside a bathroom vanity that he had purchased from Home Depot. Another customer found three kilograms of cocaine and about 40 pounds of marijuana inside another vanity he had purchased. In this case the street value of the drugs was nearly $250,000. A third customer also found a large amount of illegal drugs inside merchandise he had purchased from Home Depot as well.

Searches by law enforcement at stores throughout the state of Massachusetts uncovered additional cases where drugs were found in Home Depot merchandise. Law enforcement had found that the merchandise containing the drugs had originated from Texas and were distributed to the stores from a warehouse in Massachusetts. They believed that the merchandise was supposed to be intercepted and the drugs removed beforehand, but either the person was not on duty or the packages had been mislabeled. Home Depot announced its intent to fully cooperate with law enforcement.[6]

I see no reason why not, he hasn't justified his removal of the section, and the section has been involved in some minor controversy lately - this section itself is referred to from another site, so it may as well exist in the article itself. I'll put it back in. I'm not really opposed to its non-inclusion as much as I am to it being removed without a reason. --59.167.111.186 09:35, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Shareholder Controversy

The ===Shareholder Controversy=== section had some OTP POV wording. I softened that wording but the whole section needs to be balanced and fact checked. For now, I added POV-check-section and citation needed tags. Could somebody more familiar with this topic check this? --mav 17:03, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Here are some links that might help:

• BusinessWeek.com CEOs in the Hot Seat (section 2)
• BusinessWeek.com Bob Nardelli Explains Himself

But honestly, do we need a whole subsection on this? IMO, all we need is a line or two. But then, we would need a lot more about other controversies to fill out that section. Perhaps a ==Public relations and perception== section is needed instead. Having a section solely devoted to bad public relations (controversies) seems inherently POV to me. --mav 17:20, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Made some spelling corrections (alligation → allegation, corporatation → corporation). — NRen2k5 08:42, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Next Wal-Mart style controversy?

Home Depot is second in line to become a politically heated controversy on the way Home Depot conducts its' corporate business ethics and morality, the same fate Wal-Mart has encountered in the early 2000's nearly destroyed the once-strong "community-friendly" image it once had. I'm afraid there will be further action from labor unions, state governments and corporate activist groups against Home Depot, due to their wage stability, employees are in high risk of financial insecurity, and inability to handle employee's concerns. Home Depot has a similar but less jarring effect on communities, but small home improvement shops indeed went out of business whenever a Home Depot arrives (and their lawsuits fail or rejected in court, possibly from Home Depot hired lawyers or attorneys to effectively defend their business practices or overruled some citizens' efforts to block their "rights" to move into any community they want). Lowe's are placed above Home Depot (Lowe's is said to enjoy better recommandation and reputation from liberals and Democrats on how well the employees are treated), but Home Depot ranked better than K-Mart, Sears and of course, Wal-Mart on these matters. In the western states like California, Arizona and New Mexico (what about Texas?), Home Depot was reported to hire illegal immigrants and the INS did raids in Los Angeles area Home Depots from 2004 to 2006. There are high volumes of complaints by women, the disabled, senior citizens and minority groups on Home Depot deliberately refused to promote them or hired them in account of lower wages or less benefits, and Lowe's appears softer or gentler to women and other social/cultural groups (Lowe's ranked good with black/African Americans and Latinos, but not so well for Home Depot, despite the store is generally harsh on discrimination and prohibits any kind of racism and sexism in employment practices). + 63.3.14.1 13:34, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Removal

Removed portion at the beginning of this article that had been altered to say,

"...it is the largest ripooff to the consumer of home improvement products in the world, providing a wide range of crap from china, bad service for both professionals and [[do-it-yourself[Idiots that don't know anything]]] consumers."

Anyone familiar with the text that used to exist in place of the above, please edit immediately. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 72.152.66.203 (talk) 21:15, 14 April 2007 (UTC).