Home Depot Launches Smaller Urban Stores

Home Depot is rolling out the first of its smaller-size stores in Brooklyn, New York, in an effort to break into new markets, reports Reuters. The Brooklyn store, set to open next week, is about 61,000 square feet and will employ about 175 people. Its inventory is geared for neighborhood customers.

“It’s not so much a push into urban areas but rather to redefine the store format,” said John Wicks, President of the Mid-Atlantic region for Home Depot.

The other new neighborhood stores are set to open on New York’s Staten Island in September and in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago in January of 2003. The new stores are about two-thirds the size of a regular Home Depot warehouse, which are about 130,000 square feet.

Moderator Comment: What opportunities/challenges do
you see for Home Depot with its current strategies for expansion?

Home Depot has been testing a smaller store concept called
Villager’s Hardware in several New Jersey locations. Based on cars in the lot
and shoppers in the local store in Garwood, N,J,, the test has been a success.
The Brooklyn store and others that are planned are larger than the Villager’s
format. Extra space will be set aside for lumber and commercial needs, according
to reports. The Villager’s format also serves commercial construction and related
businesses, but its merchandising emphasis is consumer-based. [George
Anderson – Moderator
]

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