- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- US Treasury Wants Banks to Do More to Ease Mortgages
- Fed Audit Would Hurt Economic Prospects: Bernanke
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Black Friday Sales Rise by 0.5%: ShopperTrak
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Big US Banks May Be Forced to Raise Capital: Bove
- Bank of America Amends Pay for Senior Executives
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
Text Size 
Home Depot is currently the worst-performing stock [HD
Loading...
()
] in the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, but the warehouse-style U.S. home-improvement retailer is getting a makeover.
Attempting to woo women, Home Depot has launched a pilot program: two store locations were reworked as “Design Centers,” geared to supposedly female tastes.
The design centers feature less lumber and heavy tools, more finished furniture, design services and organizational tools. The centers have also been revamped aesthetically with homier color schemes.
A Home Depot spokesman told CNBC that men should not feel alienated by the experimental layouts: the program is not meant to appeal to women alone, but to attract couples to come and share the new “customer experience” together.
There are some good reasons for the changes. Among them is the belief that women control the lion's share of the household home improvement budget.
“About 83 cents of every dollar is either spent or influenced by women in the United States today,” advertising expert Michelle Miller told CNBC.
Also, Home Depot's rival Lowe’s [LOW
Loading...
()
] – the No. 2 U.S. home-improvement retailer by sales – has long been seen as being more friendly to women shoppers with its brighter stores.
Mitch Kaiser, retail analyst at Piper Jaffray, thinks Home Depot’s plan has potential. He told CNBC, “The bigger benefit could be if [the company] could take the learning from these stores and extend it” to its 2,200 other sales outlets.
Home Depot has an opportunity to reclaim market share if it can manage to “increase the ‘shopability’” of its vast chain, said Kaiser.
Print
Email
- These four sectors will be the next to lead the market.
- Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
- From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- Shopping for a gadget hound? The choices can be baffling. Here are a few that should be a hit.
- "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes