The Home Depot is the largest home improvement center retailer in the US, and is also branching out to Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. The large amount of home improvement items, and home improvement seminars have helped the Home Depot grow in size. The customers The Home Depot gets are not only homeowners, but also home builders. This is because of the low prices, and large quantity and variety of quality items. The Home Depot is still expanding, and is going to offer farming and ranching supplies in addition to lawn and home improvement supplies.

When Handy Dan Home Improvement Center was eaten up in a corporate buyout, Bernard Marcus and Arthur M. Blank lost their jobs. They teamed up with another co-worker, and they decided to create a better home improvement center called The Home Depot. They had 3 stores in 1979, and in 1981, they went public, gaining 4 million dollars. With this money, they flooded nearby states with more stores, and increased sales into the ten millions. In the mid-1980s, The Home Depot computerized their operation. They got computerized checkout systems and item lookups, and ever since then, has never lagged behind in their technology. In 1988, their sales were over $2 billion, due to the fact that they added over 100 stores.

NYSE symbol: HD