Amanda Beare ’16 pitched The Home Depot (HD) to the Student Managed Investment Fund (SMIF) on January 20, 2016. Two seasoned retailing executives, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, founded Home Depot in 1978, along with the help of investment banker and Bucknell University alumnus Kenneth Langone ’57. Home Depot and its subsidiaries operate full-service, warehouse-style stores that average approximately 104,000 sq. ft. of indoor space, and an additional 24,000 sq. ft. of outdoor space for gardening needs. The company offers over 30,000 different types of building materials, home improvement supplies, and garden and lawn products for professional customers, do-it-yourself customers, and do-it-for-me customers. Home Depot differentiates its business from others by striving to achieve superior customer service, product authority, disciplined capital allocation, heightened productivity and efficiency, and a greater interconnected. The class voted to buy Home Depot.
