Competitive Intelligence

Home Depot Opens World’s Largest Home Improvement Store in Manhattan

The Home Depot had a "board-cutting" ceremony last Friday morning at the new Manhattan location marking the opening of the world's largest home improvement store boasting 105,000 square feet of sales space and merchandise. The multi-level store employs 300 associates, including a full-time concierge and is located at 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The Home Depot's chairman, president and CEO, Bob Nardelli, said, "Our new Manhattan location is a retail marvel and proof positive that The Home Depot continues to break the mold in how we approach new formats, new markets and new customers."

The company will be playing to a more urban crowd at the 105,000-square foot space in Chelsea, an area that already boasts mega-stores like Staples, Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Home Depot's first Manhattan store, which opens to the public on Friday, will have a doorman for help in hailing cabs and a concierge to offer information and schedule appointments with designers. It promises same-day delivery of most merchandise, a boon for public transportation-bound urbanites.

"Manhattan is unique, and it has a tremendous customer base opportunity," Robert Nardelli, the company's chairman, chief executive and president said at the store's grand opening on Thursday. "We're confident that with success here, it will give us the opportunity to continue to expand our business."

The store, located on 23rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Manhattan, announces itself with orange banners on its facade and features a more classic, homey interior, with white columns and an atrium.

The company says that it has transformed the store for the urban audience through months of working with focus groups and doing customer research.

The store will focus on the upscale, fashionable home items and decor that city dwellers demand, the company said.

"We've got nails. We've got electrical sockets. But we've also got $7,000 rugs," said Tom Taylor, the company's Eastern Division president.

While customers can still buy themselves a miter saw or a cordless drill, those who, for example, don't have room to store large power tools in their studio apartment, can rent tools, which the store will deliver and pick up.

The store will also offer urban-oriented home improvement clinics with names like "Make 500 sq. ft. feel like 5,000 sq. ft." and "How to Create a Garden on a Fire Escape."

Instead of displays of lawn mowers or lumber or sheetrock (which are still available by special order), the Manhattan store has expanded showcases of light fixtures, cabinet hardware and small appliances.

With space at a premium in many Manhattan homes, the new store has focused on storage solutions, offering the help of special closet designers.

There are also down-sized stoves, stackable washer-dryer sets and mini refrigerators, as well as a $2,299 "Gym-In-A-Box" with a treadmill, weightbench and dumbbells that all fold neatly into an armoire. New York-only items include electric fireplaces and 40 one-of-a-kind area rugs.

Home Depot has poured $14 billion into new store construction, store remodeling and technology upgrades over the past four years, Nardelli said.

If they can make it there, maybe they really can make it anywhere…

- Arik