Store Hours and Delivery Times

The Home Depot’s two main customers are at home “do-it-yourselfers” and contractors. The main products and services offered help solve the wants and needs of customers involved with home construction and maintenance,

In a day of, “I want it now and I’m willing to pay for it,” a shopping center has to offer a variety of stores, and also have several options. The shoe shopper will go to the place with 5 shoe stores before they go to the place with only 1. They may not realize that of the 5 available shoe stores; only 1 is in their price range, but satisfying a wider variety of consumers will help the mall broaden the shopper’s experience. But it is important to remember that shoppers are price sensitive, so not only do you need a variety of stores offering a variety of products, but you also need to be able to provide a variety of price points so you don’t limit your shopper demographics.

Retailing building supply stores have become a popular retail industry sector due to increased public awareness and the need of many homeowners for the home improvement products. Back in the 1970s, long before warehouse stores ruled home improvement land, do-it-yourselfers shopped at “home centers.” These 30,000 square foot stores offered cheaper prices and wider selection of products, about 25,000 more than local hardware stores and eliminated the extra trip to the lumberyard. The dependence of many of these retailers upon the homebuilding industry for much of their business has also been reduced and the warehouse superstores, such as Home Depot, have become more important. The smaller companies in the

From its roots as a vision in 1978 of a home improvement superstore The Home Depot has become a giant in this sector. Influenced by the “do-it-yourself” customer or the corporate contractors each policy and business plan is developed with a consumer stake holder emphasis. As its founders stated “We’re in the people business” (Planning), and this is maintained in its business structure today. Set up as a direct to consumer warehouse of home improvement and building products

A customer service program was developed in 1999 to track the performance of their employees. As incentives for their employees offering great customer service the data received from this tracking is used to reward employees. Additionally, it gave Lowes the ability to recognize the cause of service failures, thus giving them the opportunity to improve in that area. The layout of the store is helpful to the customer in locating the products that they are looking for. Its warehouse style store is laid out so that two shopping carts can pass in the aisles in comfort. This seems to appeal to the female shoppers which initiate eighty percent of home projects Lowes distribution system is strong and efficient. They regionally operate fourteen distribution systems. They efficiently distribute seventy five percent of its merchandise to its stores through the fifteen flatbed distribution centers they have for lumber, building materials and other long length or heavy items. Because can purchase large scale orders they are able to get them at a discount and pass the savings onto their customers. Lowes has multiple technological systems that their customers have access to. They offer how-to-videos, DIY projects, landscaping and lawn ideas, and more helpful videos full of inspiration. The enhanced multi-channel experience for the customer is available in many variations. Lowes has in-store-Wi-Fi, touch screen technology, and barcodes that can be accessed through a customer’s

The Home Depot knows that they must stay on top of technology and management must be able to organize this function in a way that surpasses the competition, pleases the customers, and keep the employees satisfied.

Consumers are always satisfied with good customer service. When it comes to retail store customer service and satisfaction it is important because department stores are large in size and finding help can be difficult. Colloquy, a company concerned with building customer value, released a survey and asked 3,000 consumers across five geographical areas to rate their personal experiences with retailers. Macy’s was ranked number one in the department store category, with the most loyal customers. To keep up with technology advances Macy’s has invested time and money into developing a more efficient online shopping site, Macys.com and Macysweddingchannel. This investment cost nearly $300 million in 2006-2008 is being used to scale-up these fast-growing businesses through improvements in delivery efficiency, online site functionality and customer service. To enhance the shopping experience at Macy’s 100 stores in 2007 experienced remodeling and began introducing the most advanced POS registers and systems to the sales floors nationwide. Macy’s passion is product and people. There continuing pursuit is to have unique fashionable merchandise ready for customer satisfaction. Macy’s promise is to always carry the best brands and the most-wanted items. They also believe in hiring the right employees. With the right employees, there will be a sense of motivation and helpfulness. The American Customer Satisfaction Index covers 200 companies’ products and

Home Depot strives to provide the highest quality service to its customers. Home Depot achieves this by hiring professionals such as, carpenters, plumbers, and paint specialists. These experts are invaluable resources for less knowledgeable customers looking for a certain product or working on a new project. The Home Depot staff can help customers pick out larger and more difficult items such as showers, vinyl siding, carpet, appliances, and plumbing. After the purchase, Home Depot will have the items delivered and installed in the customer’s home. Home Depot’s focus on “product authority” is one of the main and drivers for the company’s high quality service.

(The Home Depot, Inc, 2006) Customer service at home depot is one of the most important priorities. What better than enhancing customer service than providing a small coffee shop in the store for our early risers? The benefits of this service will make it convenient. Most of The Home Depot early risers are contractors who purchase their materials early to start their projects for the day. Having a small coffee shop in the location will save the customer time by not having to stop elsewhere for a quick breakfast before a long day at work.

Before I begin this paper, I would like to explain that this paper is based on my experience working at the Home Depot. Things might have changed since I left in November, and that this does not represent anything other than what my experience was working there. I worked as a freight team member and the duties include unloading the trucks and stocking the stores at night when the customers are not at the store. During the night shift there is less than ten people working in the store so most of the time we are stocking the shelves by ourselves unless we were unloading the truck.

The Home Depot is an option for retail in the home improvement industry (homedepot.com, n.d.). Home Depot’s strategic perspective appears to one that has been successful although the organization has remained in close competition with the competitor, Lowes. Both organizations are essential for home owners in that one can easily acquire building materials of all kinds. Upon entering a Home Depot store one is exposed to the vastness of product offerings. This vastness could cause one to argue that this type of store is not specialty but I offer that the Home Depot is a specialty in that you can only purchase home building or home improvement items. These items are specific to Home Depot. There is a no frill style of display and several

While Target is grappling with the immediate issue of eliminating “show-rooming” in their stores, the more pressing issue is, evolving their business model to fully exploit e-commerce to maintain a competitive advantage (Kinicki, 2013). Analysts estimated that customers would spend $1.4 trillion online in 2015 and yet, as late as 2011 e-commerce only accounted for approximately 2% of Target’s overall sells (Kinicki, 2013). Therefore, Target’s management team must create and execute a strategy that enables Target to adjust to changing customer purchasing patterns, significantly increase internet sells, and lower operational cost (Kinicki, 2013).

Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer operating in 45 states, Canada, Chili and Puerto Rico. Home Depot stores aim to serve both do-it-yourselfers and professional contractors with home improvement superstores carrying between 40,000 and 50,000 different products. Home Depot has also been listed as one of Fortune's most admired specialty retailers for the past six years. In order for companies to succeed in the competitive current marketplace they must consider not only the bottom line and their investors but also their impacts on the community, their employees, and their customers. Home Depot was founded on the idea that treating employees well is an important responsibility. Home Depot believes employees that are

Today’s customers are more aware and empowered, and have more bargaining power due to the exponential increase in competition – direct, indirect or substitute. In retailing, they want hassle-free shopping, have less time at their disposal to locate the shop and the merchandise and are reluctant to keep waiting. The modern format retail stores are doing their best to anticipate the customer’s demands and are going all out to redesign their store interiors, offer more choices in varieties and assortments, and are giving as many services as feasible.

The store management is decentralized, allowing individual store managers more power in decision-making, as they were expected to come up with their own methods for cutting prices and increasing sales. This is done differently in the competitors’ stores, where policies are brought in regional offices. Superior personal customer service offered at the stores from 9am to 9pm six days a week, with shorter working hours on Sundays (Supercentres were open continuously) together with specialized employee training provided customers with an atmosphere in which they were happy to spend their time and money.