The History of Home Depot (More Drama than you can fit in a 5 gallon bucket) 

Who should be featured next in our History Of series?

Damn good history. My Compliments. I hope your Lady Bear and all the cubs are fine. You do a good service sir. My Hat is off to you

This is a great series. I would love to see you do something like this again. With all of your free time.

I was with Home Depot as a consumer from the first door opening. I spent tons of cash,built 2 homes,and 4 garages, and had a lot of fun along the way. Even tho it is only via internet that I buy from them,but I always will. My sons is a lic contractor,and uses the other one.

That was a great video! Very entertaining and informative. Please do others! Way to go Bear!

These are my favorite videos you do. I can tell they have a lot of research and work put into them. Well done sir.

Thanks for another pro quality video! I grew up in the Chamblee/Doraville Georgia area back in the '60s and '70s. That first Home Depot was in an empty Treasure Island discount department store on Buford Highway (US 23). They later built their own store a few miles north on Tilly Mill Road and that store exists today.

I remember when Home Depot came to NJ back in the early nineties. They were very consumer proactive and as a part of that approach, hired people who were professionals in certain fields. My next door neighbor was a licensed electrician who worked on staff at a local medical center. He was looking for some extra work at the time and went to the HD to see what they had available. He only wanted part time work. They hired him at 14.00 dollars an hour to help consumers in the electrical department. That was a pretty high rate for the times. I myself loved going to HD. They had everything, from landscaping to tools etc. The prices were very reasonable too. A very consumer friendly place. I live in NY now and have a Lowes and HD closeby. I have found that Lowes has the best lumber. Can't understand why HD has such crappy lumber products but I do most of my shopping at HD for other things and also use their online website to buy things. All in all HD is a great store. And BTW, we also have a Harbor Freight here too. So I am surrounded by the best of all worlds when it comes to choice. Good video, lots of history. Thankyou.

Absolutely love these videos! I’d like to see one about Stanley before they started buying everyone. The good old Stanley Rule and Level day’s 👍🏼

This has to be my favorite of all of your videos that I have watched!!! I was in the Atlanta area, when HD was just a toddler, and I loved it and now. People at the lowes that i also went to, were laughing at HD, and saying it was just a flash in the pan, and wouldn't last. A year later, that lowes and a few others in the area, closed!! And HD went wild!!! I so wish we had an HD in Stillwater OK!!!!!

Excellent detail on your chronology - I worked PT for HD in 2000-01 and again 2018-19 after retiring - the culture was really different in the early days (Arthur/Bernie) where pros worked there and actually knew something about construction or their department. I was not around when Nardelli was in charge but he had a very bad reputation among people I knew who were there. My second/last time there I found the customers were just plain terrible - rude and demanding - heavy shoplifting problem in my store. Most employees were there for a job but some were very good - most did the minimum - some knew a bit about their department but the majority were just clerks. No good help / answers on the sales floor unless you went to a specialty department like paint or floor covering. I will still buy at HD but the only reason is the price - like HDX tools - as Harbor Freight is really strong on tool quality and pricing now. HD also spent a ton of money to develop their online (Amazon model) business and will emphasize that from now on. I see them going to smaller stores as a result on any new facility builds as online sales will make up the majority of their future sales, they can ship from a vendor warehouse without touching the product and they can cut the head count. Good video - keep up the great work.

Paused it at 9:51 to make some food. Now I'm back to the bear essentials.

Just a word about my personal preference. I've always seen Lowes vs. HD as six of one and half a dozen of the other. I'd go wherever was most convenient. But about a month ago a good friend of mine died. His daughter works at the HD in Dallas, entry level, not management or any kind of high level employee. HD offered to pay her entire burial expenses. When she told them that her dad was a veteran and all the funeral costs were taken care of, they reimbursed her for _all_ of her out-of-pocket expenses, including the hourly wages that she would have missed for taking care of the arrangements and going to the funeral. So, unless there is some serious and overwhelming reason to go somewhere else, I'll be in HD whenever they have something I need.

Another excellent video well done. I really appreciate your research on these. Also your down to earth presentation. Thank you

FANTASTIC VIDEO!!!!!

Another great one Red. Thanks.

That photo is HD store 101. The original store on Memorial Drive. I remember when it opened and when it shuttered to make way for the new store in Decatur. Many of their sales workers are retiring as millionaires because of their employee plans.

Wow...That was Great!!!! Good Job Red!!!!!!

Love that vintage background photo! Not an SUV or pickup in sight. And get a load of that boat of a Lincoln! And look at all the station wagons! Those were the days I had an Olds 98 that required a captain's license along with a driver's license.

I believe I can explain why so many in this hardware game are also connected to pharmacies. They have one important thing in common to attract a business man- outrageous mark ups.

Awsome. I'm glad you video this. I'm very proud of home depot. Thank you so much.

This might be my favorite history video yet Red! I still remember when big orange opened their first store near us when I was a kid in the 90's - it was a big deal to go there to check it out. I know my dad started going there instead of the smaller stores like Rickel - clearly many other dads did the same. Since others bring it up I find I go to HD more than Lowe's generally, sometimes it does depend what brand I'm looking for of course - others it's all about who's got the deal on what I want. I've been pretty impressed with some of the non-tool stuff from HD as of late though. I just picked up a couple super beefy metal shelving units there, same as what Costco was selling for $500+ for around $150 less at HD. Same manufacturer (Edsal) in a Husky box - sure! Can't wait for the next history video sir. Thanks again!

The Judge Smales line went through my head immediately and then you said it. Nice 👍🏽

Great job on a great story! Loved it! And I will be ordering one of your hoodies!

this was very intresting The bear rocks . I also like your Harbor freight stuff .

Holy crap...I'm exhausted after listening to all this! It's rather mind-boggling to hear about all this wheeling and dealing.

Very interesting and informative. Viewing from west coast Canada. TKS.

I love your history videos!! You are a smart bear:-)

Loving the jacket!!! :-0) loved the video!!please do more. Lowes on deck.

You are an amazing bear! Your research and presentation skills are incredible. Thank you so much for sharing your talents with the world. From one bear to another, rock on brother! What a great story. I love my DaBear shirt. 🐻

Hey Bear, can you do a brief history on Klein Tools. I think your videos are great! Keep up everything you do!

I love your videos!

Neat. Can you do a video of Cornwell Tools. This year is Cornwell 100 year anniversary.

I enjoyed this,, even learned a thing or 2

May you do a brief history on Orchard Supply Hardware? Very informative video btw

Glad I found this channel :)

Unfortunately Home Depot has better customer service at least in this area than most other box stores

BTW, Lowe’s has a full time 10% military discount, for active, retired AND Honorary Discharged vets, 365 days a year, with online registration that gives access at the register via your phone number. HD I believe offers a discount only to active and retired on three days a year.

Lowe's also sells DeWalt, it's not just at Home Depot. I shop at both.

Just under One Hour ago, I visited the Warrenton OR Home Depot. I needed to use the restroom, so I used yours. The ONLY place I have EVER seen a dirtier Stall and commode was in South Africa! To see what I saw in an American facility is indefensible. I am 64 Years old, I have TWO Stents in my Heart, and am currently recovering from a Joint Replacement Surgery. With these facts in mind, consider the utter "joy and excitement" I felt while literally on my Hands and Knees, cleaning a dried mess of Diarrhea excrement someone had left SOME TIME earlier. There is NO WAY ON THIS EARTH(!) that no Home Depot Employee had NOT seen this, given the obvious time that had elapsed between the time the "event" occurred and the time I arrived. Yet, this "STUFF" was left for the public to see, and I ended up being the customer who was forced to deal with this, as, for one thing, the other stall was in use at the time. After that, I did purchase the thing I come for, and as I was leaving, I happened upon a Male employee named ------------- I told him of the situation, and ----------- mentioned that he had been in there about ten Minutes earlier and had seen it himself. ------------ did NOT apologize to me for the situation. I then said that if I ever see a situation like that again, I'll report it to the State. ----------- did say something to the effect that he had not had time to clean it up, but THEN became angry towards me, stating that he has no control over what other people do, and complained to me that I was upset-he continued saying other stuff, but by nw I was so disgusted I stopped listening to him and proceeded to leave the store. Just before I left I asked your greeter for his name, which she gave me. As I was walking out the door to the parking lot, I could hear ------------ STILL COMPLAINING TO HIS FELLOW EMPLOYEES AT THE SERVICE COUNTER ABOUT ME-EXCUSE ME?! I'm the customer. I am not the person who left a commode covered in SHIT! I had EVERY right to be unhappy with this situation, especially considering the fact that the SHIT has had time to DRY ON THE TOILET SEAT! ------------- had NO right to be angry at me, much less COMPLAIN about me to his fellow Home Depoe Employees. Excuse me --------; Next time, you might try something like: "I just became aware of it. I'm so sorry you had to go through a thing like that. I'll get it cleaned up right away". Rather than what you DID give me which was "I have no control over what other people do." And then to have the AUDACITY to complain about ME to your fellow employees?! Now, Home Depot Customer Care, I think that at the VERY LEAST, I am owed a formal apology for this treatment! And I WILL be posting this on Social Media! Bruce A. Forster

Met Bernie Marcus in 1979. He was in Management, thought he was the Owner of the Handy Dan's in North Long Beach. Every time I went there Bernie Marcus would always be there and always stopped to help my wife and I. When the wife and I found out about a small private owned company named HD was coming to California my wife decided to get a job there only to find out our Friend was the CEO. When he came to the California Store he recognized my wife and stopped to talk with her, much to the chagrin of pos sig shit. That guy would give my wife the evil eye. Nonetheless, whenever Bernie was in California he would make it a point to search out my wife to see how she was doing. I'll tell you the rest if you are interested Bear.

I had no idear Home Depot had such as "colorful" history. Thx for the research. Home Depot is very competitive these days beating even Amazon on many items.

I loved working as a tool tech for HD tool rental and repair. They treat you like a real person. Not the best paying but good place to work.

I mentioned in your video about why home depot is beating lowes and described exactly what you said in the end of this video. P.s. thanks for the shoutout on supplying your outro.

Great piece of history! Goes to show your company is only as good as you treat people. If you share your success with your employees there is no ceiling on how well you can succeed. I have shopped at both stores. The Lowes here in Bremerton are so friendly and they are very helpful and knowledgeable. The store is well kept and clean and organized. Red remember when John Madden did the Ace hardware commercials? How about Ace verses True Value are they mostly located in rural areas?

Grrrreat video!

What a terrific study for a college business class! Have any picked up on this?

I am a part-time HD associate. Definitely learned something new from this video.

I use Lowe’s primarily because of location. It’s the closest one to me. Also Lowe’s & Home Depot offer a 10% discount for military. Menards does not, so they get very little if my business.

Sanford Sigoloff sounds like the name of a bad guy from an 80's comic book.

LoL... I got a home depot ad from RU-vid when I clicked the video

Interesting history lesson, Red. Funny thing about Home Depot is they claim to be for the professional builder and such, but their tv commercials always show DIYers. We have a couple of local home improvement/hardware stores; Marvin’s Home Improvement and the Russell Do-It-Best Centers. Marvin’s never has anything I need, a bare staff, but plenty of what I want. I’ve had the best customer service at Russell. I walk in, the Feller walks up and asks how can he help. I show him what I need and he takes me right to it. I prefer Lowe’s over Home Depot, but I want to support my local businesses first and save Lowe’s for the last resort. I go to Lowe’s and I can’t find anyone. So, I call the store on my cellphone and tell the customer service representative I need help in such and such and aisle, 10 minutes later someone arrives. Yeah, I save Lowe’s for the last resort.

Another very well researched video bear. Menards stores are about twice as large as home depot or lowes. I still rate home depot 3rd behind menards and lowes. Keep up the good videos bear.

Does it have to be tool related? How about after a hard day's work? Baskin Robbins 31 flavors, thanks for another great video my Friend, Rodney

The relationship between home depot and lowes is similarly to that movie "the legend of ricky bobby". Both companies have positions 1 and 2 on lockdown and the best anyone else can hope for is a distant 3rd. While both companies are not perfect i shop at both.

I didn't know TTI owned Hoover. There's an idea for a history of, maybe even Kirby.

I have HD, Lowes, and Menards within a 10 minute drive, but most often I shop at Menards. I can be in and out in minutes and I love their 11% off sales. I like Lowes second best for lawn care needs because for some reason they’re the only ones in my area that carry Milorganite. HD, I mostly shop at for plywood because they cut it for you, but I made a ripping jig for my circ saw so I might not be doing that much now.

You didn't cover this but, isn't that the same Sigolof (sp?) that ran Builders Emporium into the ground?

Lowes has been closing a few stores in my area.

Can you do brief history of Lowe's?

This would make a heck of a Netflix series!

Good man that Ken Langone!

Nice history but I would still never shop there

A brief history of Milwaukee Electric Tool would be wonderful. Also Starrett, but that's a bit farther over to the machinist side of things.

Wow, How long have you been out of school? Do you realize your just delivered a mega term paper? Two paws up!

Ming the Merciless is a pretty bad ass nickname.

......then there was Bob Nardelli. Oh man. They paid that guy millions to wreck a great thing. Not only for customers but employees.

I have an idea for you tell us about channels hardware store or Rickles remember those two stores before Home Depot it was channels and Rickles why did they decline mr. Bear do a video on that

Great video! how about the history of TTI ? prefer Lowes for lumber over Menards, you do not have to sort through the piles of wood to get a good piece, Home Depot for tools.

I thought this was gonna be about how people shoplift with the buckets

I was a UFCW member at a local grocery chain in the late 80's. After that I vowed to never join a union again.

I live in a city and Lowes and Depot are 1/2 a block from each other and I'm a DIY er for my own house and more times than I can think of I've walked out of Lowes empty-handed, so many times and rarely am I looking for some obscure item !!!!!!!

Yeah their policy is to fire employees that help little girls from getting kidnapped. After I saw that story I stopped shopping there.

I love a success story, especially when the good guys win.

Home depot be the bestest!

Can we get a history on Builders Square?

I prefer Lowes to be honest especially after they started stamping their washers, and nuts/bolts, with their sku numbers. They became weaker and, for my purposes, that stamp threw off the tolerances. I guess if you just wanted to use them for house anchors they would be okay but even then. Oh, and the wood these people sell is horrible fourths at first quality prices (with leaking roofs pouring down on the unfinished lumber that has now bowed/splintered beyond usability. btw, I remember Handy Dan in San Antonio back in the 80's and I much preferred it to either HD or Lowes as prices were good and quality was as well.

Should do one on hechingers

I know that they're defunct now, how about Handy Andy and my second real job working at Builders Square.

Hey, are you going to review the Harbor Freight new Pressure washer? I am somewhat interested in that product.

More drama than Shakespeare

I miss Home Base.

I actually prefer Home Depot over Lowe's as the Home Depot store is better laid out and more logical to find things. I mostly buy from the Home Depot locally as they also have better pricing even with the veterans discount I get from Lowe's. I do buy some major appliances like a fridge, freezer or stove from Lowe's as like most I do go for a sale price and then I can most of the time of the time get a veterans discount of 10% on top of the low sales price. I would not buy washer or dryer from Lowe's or Home Depot as most of that imported junk WILL fail quickly and I go to a local appliance store that sells Speed Queen The issue I have with Lowe's is the fact I buy something there and need another like item and they discontinued the product and no longer carry it. I once bought vents for my garage as I wanted a metal ones as the plastic tends to get brittle and break apart after a few years. I found the exact metal vent I wanted at Lowe's. It was marked clearance for under $10.00. I grabbed the last two as that was exactly what I wanted. The clerk rings me up and I also got 10% off but if I ever needed more of the vents forget it but I doubt I ever will.

I hate going to Home Depot, I don't know if all of them are as poorly laid out and dirty like mine. Plus don't get me started on the lack of open registers and the exit being so far from the entrance!

Let's say in "tool lingo" Sanford was not bolted down.

Hey, how the Diet going? I have lost 55 pounds since Oct. And while i still can't do much much, I feel a LOT better, and am off of BP pills!!!!

Only a Ford lol I like Lowes better because it seems like the home depot employees are under educated on the items in the store. Lowes had the older employees that have been around the block more then once. And this seems to be any one I go to. Just my opinion.

I worked for home depot years ago, managment sucked and treated you like meat. Now work as a carpenter.

home depot says extensively in their training that they do not want ANY associates to join a union, they will not tolerate it. and honestly when you work for a company like home depot a union is just a useless pain in the ass anyways, nobody even wants to join a union because it hurts more than it helps. home depot is open to demands from associates as long as the demands are with in reason and your OASM/SM and HR associates aren't a total assholes. they will approve raises upon request as long as you're not useless garbage, they will always give you requested time off as long as it's requested far enough in advance. they offer great benefits like discounts on insurance, phone bills, buying a car, buying a computer, prescription drugs, and many other things. they also offer dental, vision, full health coverage, 401k matched a 5%, stock discounts, and if you stay with the company long enough they will increase your pay by a stupid amount. there are people who are working there as normal on the floor associates but still make $30 an hour just because they have been with the company for so long. I have been there for just over 2 years I started at $10 an hour and now I make $16 an hour. and they discontinued it for a while but I think they brought it back where if you have been there for 10 years you get $5k cash and if you have been there for 20 years you get $10k cash and an extra $3k every year after that and that money is on top of you salary increase. if you're loyal to the company and do a good job they will greatly compensate you for it.

Harbor frieght is way more then that a busy store pulls in up to 10 million a year.

I worked with a guy who had a chance to buy in to HD or buy a Jeep with some money he had saved back in the day Bear. He drove away from Easy Street. Yehaa from East Ky view 5637 like 438

Anyone remember Hechinger?

I spent 10 years with HD. 2000-2010. Those first 2 years were very good. Even though I came home smelly and tired, I felt that I had been payed to have a good time. 2002 that started to change. By 08, Terrible environment to work. They only wanted warm bodies that would be there on time. So went the salaries. Before 2002 it was not uncommon for a guy to be making 25 dollars an hour....mixing paint.

At what point was Marvin Ellison involved?

Which do I like better, Home Depot or Lowe’s?...Ford, definitely Ford

Menards.

Lowes for me cause of the military discount all ur around

That 4th guy (the corporate assassin) sounds like a business owner I worked for. No employee would dare to hand in their two weeks notice that they are moving on. Those next two weeks would be hell on earth for that person. The owner often stated that we should all be paying him to work for him. Out of all the Mensa members I've met this guy's ego was bigger that his IQ.

Busy Beaver,

Homeless death spot