Home Depot Business Analysis
When the housing market boomed, so did construction companies and building material suppliers. Every aspect of construction had an increase in demand from development companies looking for a large supply of building materials, and from a large consumer group of new homeowners. As a result, a company such as The Home Depot was able to capitalize from the success of the construction and home improvement markets. Unfortunately, the downturn in the economy is truly affecting Home Depot 's revenue. However, evaluating market conditions and market trends will help provide the company with the needed data to help predict the future market of Home Depot and suggestions to consider in order to overcome the economic challenges of the upcoming months.
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The company is the second largest retailer in the United States following Wal-Mart, and has approximately 300,000 employees as of the last quarter in 2008 (The Home Depot, Inc., 2009). The company supplies almost 45,000 items which are not limited to but include: lumber, floor and wall coverings, tools, paint, appliances, fixtures and almost every necessary item for home improvement. The company marketed itself to the large do-it-yourself consumer group and created the slogan, "You can do it. We can help."Although The Home Depot dominates the home improvement market it is far from a monopoly, it is however structured as an oligopolistic firm. As an oligopoly market structure, The Home Depot has very few sellers with similar or identical products, but has numerous amounts of buyers. With competitors such as, Tru Value, Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH), Ace Hardware, and its largest competitor, Lowe 's, The Home Depot must take into account the actions of its …show more content…
An example of what the Feds is doing is injecting money into the financial systems to stem the effects of the current credit crisis. It also includes lowering current housing interest rates to a low of 4.625 %, effective April 9, 2009 (economagic.com). According to Hobson (2007), lowering interest rates makes it less expensive for consumers to borrow money. Lower interest rates could in turn encourage continued spending, stimulate the economy, and help to reverse the credit crisis. In figure 15, the total credit market debt owed displays how the current credit crisis has created a heightened debt owed by
The company is the second largest retailer in the United States following Wal-Mart, and has approximately 300,000 employees as of the last quarter in 2008 (The Home Depot, Inc., 2009). The company supplies almost 45,000 items which are not limited to but include: lumber, floor and wall coverings, tools, paint, appliances, fixtures and almost every necessary item for home improvement. The company marketed itself to the large do-it-yourself consumer group and created the slogan, "You can do it. We can help."Although The Home Depot dominates the home improvement market it is far from a monopoly, it is however structured as an oligopolistic firm. As an oligopoly market structure, The Home Depot has very few sellers with similar or identical products, but has numerous amounts of buyers. With competitors such as, Tru Value, Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH), Ace Hardware, and its largest competitor, Lowe 's, The Home Depot must take into account the actions of its …show more content…
An example of what the Feds is doing is injecting money into the financial systems to stem the effects of the current credit crisis. It also includes lowering current housing interest rates to a low of 4.625 %, effective April 9, 2009 (economagic.com). According to Hobson (2007), lowering interest rates makes it less expensive for consumers to borrow money. Lower interest rates could in turn encourage continued spending, stimulate the economy, and help to reverse the credit crisis. In figure 15, the total credit market debt owed displays how the current credit crisis has created a heightened debt owed by