“Home Depot’s Joe McFarland, President Western Division, presents at ISI Retail Summit”  Highlights:

Pro

*  Pro business continues to grow.  For the first time Pro business grew at same rate as consumer in Q4 ’12

*  Home Depot to launch a Pro app in late Q2

*  Continued focus on growing the Pro business

Path to 60/40

*  Goal is to delegate labor hours to 60% service / 40% tasks.  Plan to hit goal in ’13.

*  ’08 — 45/55;  ’12 — 57/43

Emotional Selling 

*  We’re not a product retailer, we’re a project retailer

*  We’ve asked associates to engage in emotional connections

*  Define emotional connections as doing the unexpected

*  Gave example of a store associate who helped an elderly couple find a vacuum, then took it out of the box and showed them how to use it

2013 Targets

*  Sales growth — 2%

*  Comp sales — 3%

*  New store openings — 9 (2 in US, 7 in Mexico)

*  Gross margin expansion — moderate

*  Op margin expansion — 65 bps

Scorecard

*  Continue to take complexity out of the business

*  For 2013, Home Depot reduced the metrics on their scorecard by 40%

*  Metrics on scorecard are:  Sales, Comp Sales, Store Markdowns and Shrink.  Additionally, six key product categories are tracked each quarter and measured every week.

Saturation

*  Have reached a point of store saturation in US

*  Focused on productivity within the four walls

*  No plans to expand Expo Format or any other store format

*  11% of business is private label.  Continued focus on being a brand house.  Will continue to look for categories where brand isn’t key to expand private label program (example given as plastic bins).

Hear webcast and view PowerPoint:  https://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=63646&eventID=4929444

 

“Wal-Mart expands iPhone-based checkout” at Reuters via Chicago Tribune.  “Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it is tripling the number of U.S. stores in a pilot program that lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters.  Walmart’s “Scan & Go” program will soon be in more than 200 stores, up from about 70. The pilot began near its home office in Bentonville, Ark., in late 2012, then expanded to Atlanta.”  Read more:  https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-walmart-expands-iphonebased-checkout-20130320,0,2847772.story

 

“2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend® Study Ranks Costco, Walmart and Home Depot #1”  See the full list:  https://www.harrisinteractive.com/Insights/EquiTrendRankings.aspx

 

“Amazon CEO recovers sunken Apollo engines” at KOMO News.  “Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says his private expedition team has successfully recovered two Apollo program rocket engines from the ocean floor.  Writing on the Bezos Expeditions website, Bezos said the team is headed back to Cape Canaveral after recovering the engines from nearly 3 miles below the surface.  “We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program,” he wrote.”  Read more:  https://www.komonews.com/news/local/Amazon-CEO-Jeff-Bezos-recovers-sunken-Apollo-Saturvn-V-F-1-engines-199179081.html

 

“Wal-Mart to focus more on Hispanic shoppers” by Kim Souza at City Wire.  “56% of Hispanics shop with their mobile devices, versus 33% of Non-Hispanics. Some 43% of Hispanics shop with a tablet compared to 25% Non-Hispanics.  Research conducted last year by LatinoShop found several differences in Latino consumer behaviors compared to other consumers.  Hispanics shop with their senses.  55% Hispanics vs. 38% Non-Hispanics – like to touch and feel a product.  49% Hispanics vs. 19% Non-Hispanics – judge product quality by product packaging.”  Read more:  https://www.thecitywire.com/node/26976#.UUrRwxyG3X4

 

“Target Canada: ‘It is like a renovated Zellers'” by Dianne Nice at Globe and Mail.  “Of the 42 per cent of survey respondents who had been to a Canadian Target store, 27 per cent said they were satisfied with the prices compared to other Canadian retailers; 41 per cent said they were satisfied with the level of service; and 37 per cent said they were satisfied with the product selections.  The new Target stores, readers say, are a lot like the old Zellers stores they replaced. Some shoppers expressed disappointment that the stores did not carry the same products or prices as their U.S. counterparts.”  Read more:  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/target-canada-it-is-like-a-renovated-zellers/article9983413/

 

“Feds battle Walgreens in painkiller distribution case” by Michael Doyle at McClatchy.  “A federal crackdown on the Florida pain pill market will pit Walgreens against the Drug Enforcement Administration in a high-level and multi-front legal battle that comes to a capital courtroom this week.  Represented in part by the former U.S. solicitor general, the nation’s largest retail pharmacy company is challenging the DEA’s effort to stop a major South Florida distribution center from shipping controlled substances like oxycodone, a powerful painkiller.  Read more: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/19/186341/feds-battle-walgreens-in-painkiller.html#storylink=cpy

 

“Google’s Keep Could Take On Both Pinterest And Evernote, If It Gets The Google+ Social Plumbing” by Drew Olanoff at TechCrunch.  “Google finally released its personal note-taking app Keep today…One of the things that jumped out at me after giving it a quick try is that you can switch to a layout that’s very similar to Pinterest, another app that wants you to hoard a bunch of things. The only difference between Keep and Pinterest is that Pinterest is social. While Pinterest isn’t the only social bookmarking site in the world, it’s the one that has the most consumer appeal. That can’t be lost on Google.”  Read more:  https://techcrunch.com/2013/03/20/googles-keep-could-take-on-both-pinterest-and-evernote-if-it-gets-the-google-social-plumbing/

 

“Walmart pushes Senate to move against eBay-led sales tax exemption” by Richard Rubin at Bloomberg via Anchorage Daily News.  “Brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart see an opportunity to claim victory in a lobbying duel against online companies that don’t collect sales tax from their customers.  Retailers are urging U.S. senators to take a non-binding vote this week to demonstrate support for allowing states to impose sales taxes on out-of-state online sellers. Opponents including EBay have prevented House or Senate action so far in a decade-long dispute.”  Read more: https://www.adn.com/2013/03/20/2832774/walmart-pushes-senate-to-move.html#storylink=cpy

 

Thanks for reading…

 

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