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The Home Depot sells tools, lumber, and everything else people need to build and fix homes.
The Home Depot is the world's biggest home improvement store. It sells lumber, power tools, paint, plumbing parts, plants, appliances, and pretty much anything else you'd need to repair or upgrade a house. Its customers come in two flavors: regular people fixing up their own homes, and professional contractors who buy in bulk for job sites. Those pros, often called "Pro" customers, now make up about half of all sales — a big deal, because they buy more often and spend more per visit.
Think of it as the hardware store your dad dragged you to on Saturdays, but scaled up to more than 2,300 stores across North America and roughly $160 billion in yearly sales. The company makes money the old-fashioned way: you walk in, or order online, and pay for stuff. It also has a smaller but growing side business supplying builders directly with materials for whole housing projects, like appliances and flooring for entire apartment complexes, after buying a company called SRS Distribution in 2024 for about $18 billion.
Home Depot got its start in 1978 in Atlanta, where it's still headquartered, built on a simple idea: huge warehouses with low prices and helpful staff. What keeps it strong is scale — it can buy in massive volumes, keep shelves stocked, and offer services like tool rentals and installation. It throws off a lot of spare cash, and it uses that money to pay dividends, buy back its own stock, and invest in faster delivery for online orders, which is how it plans to keep growing even when people aren't remodeling as much.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026