Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Black Friday comes early to Home Depot
For Home Depot, Black Friday comes in spring.
As many Americans prepare to spruce up their gardens, the world’s largest home improvement retailer will host “Spring Black Friday” — a weekend of regional door buster deals in March and April.
Like the traditional Black Friday that occurs the day after Thanksgiving to unofficially start the holiday shopping season, the home goods retailer hopes its spring event will jumpstart its busiest selling season.
Last month, Home Depot reported its first quarterly same-store rise in nearly four years and gave an upbeat full-year forecast as customers begin making bigger renovation projects.
From lawn products to patio and grills, the retailer will slash prices on several spring products in March and April.
“Spring is our Christmas,” said Craig Menear, executive vice president for merchandising. “Traffic in our stores is at its highest during the spring season.”
Check Out Line: A sign of hope from Lowe’s
Check out the cautious signs of optimism at Lowe’s.
The home improvement retailer reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, raised its forecast for the year and provided this commentary: “In recent weeks, we have seen consumer confidence improve, housing turnover show signs of a bottom in certain markets and home prices slow their decline,” Chief Executive Robert Niblock said in a statement.
He added that though these are positive signs, many economic indicators remain near “historic lows,” and Lowe’s will continue to be conservative with its plans.
Net profit at the retailer fell to $476 million, or 32 cents a share, for the first quarter, from $607 million or 41 cents a share, a year earlier. But those results were good enough to beat expectations on Wall Street, where analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 25 cents per share.
“The upside was driven primarily by significantly better-than-expected comp store sales and strong gross margin expansion,” wrote Bernstein analyst Colin McGranahan in a research note.
Sales at the second-largest home improvement retailer fell 1.5 percent to $11.83 billion.
For the full year, Lowe’s now expects to earn $1.13 to $1.25 per share. It had previously expected earnings of $1.04 to $1.20 per share.
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Resident Shop Talk Expert
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This is a great idea, regardless of whether it is Home Depot, Lowes, Menards or any retailer for that matter. Kudos to Home Depot for creating its own “Too Big To Ignore” event. Their voice might not stand out during traditional Black Friday, but during the crucial spring season for DIY retailers, Home Depot is attempting to gain Retail Leverage versus their competitors.