Scary man tools will be replaced by decorative trinkets and stylish furniture at the new Home Depot pilot store designed to attract women. Tragically dubbed “Her Depot,” the store will abandon Home Depot’s warehouse aesthetic in favor of shorter, “cleaner” aisles that emphasize home organization and interior design.
“There is a showroom of doors and windows unlike any other we’ve ever tried,” Feldman said.“She can buy a light bulb as well as all of the lighting,” he said. “Or a major appliance plus the laundry detergent to go with it.”
Though there will be a garden center, the focus won’t be on the act of gardening as much as the appreciation of outdoor living. No piles of dirt and grass-seed bags or rolling shelves full of begonias and impatiens will be found at the design centers. Instead there will be more stylish outdoor furniture and accessories, upscale pottery and other garden paraphernalia.
The pilot Home Depot Design Center opens this week in Concord, CA, while a second store is expected to open soon in Charlotte, NC. Home Depot may want a new slogan to match their pretty new stores; “You Can Do It, We Can Help,” never sounded so patronizing.
This Home Depot is for women [Contra Costa Times]
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
More From Consumerist
-
Burning Down Home Depot Will Not Help Save Your Friend's Hardware Store
-
Home Depot Uses LG Appliances To Advertise Deal That Excludes LG Appliances
-
Home Depot Batman Just Wanted To "Inspire Hope," Says He's Not The Only Real-Life Superhero
-
Home Depot (Sort Of) Explains How An In-Store Purchase Can Result In E-mails From Its Website
-
Did My Home Depot Test These Shovels Before Putting Them Out For Sale?
I know Ann mentioned the new Home Depot store for women, Her Depot (blech). But I had to point out some of the language they’re using in their rollout: “She can buy a light bulb as well as all of the lighting,” [a spokesperson] said. “Or a major appliance plus the laundry detergent to go with it.”
I admit it, I’m not one of those women who gets offended by these kinds of things because I know I can hold my own and I have nothing to prove. I’m a woman who has worked in the construction industry for the last 7 years. I ran a roofing company with my father for 3 years and I have done everything from “handyman work” to deck building to roofing. Now I’m in the field office side of things for a large general contractor and have the construction experience from a different view. I know my way around just about hardware store, can ask for help when I need it, and actually know how to use those “scary tools”, but I have to say that I actually like this idea. I don’t like the warehouse feel and I really don’t like the “you’re a stupid female, aren’t you?” look I get pretty much any time I go into Home Depot or Lowes or any other one of these stores… if I can even get any assistance. I don’t like the industrial look or standard 6 colors of anything that you get through HD. I don’t like my limited options. I don’t like the cheap look to a lot of the products. The idea that “Her Depot” would be more upscale and look different would be far more inviting to me and many other women. They just need to change the name to something that isn’t quite so ultra girlie.
As far as Home Depot’s “Expo” Stores, it seems to me that it’s the red-headed stepchild of the company – totally forgotten about.
For a store with such high-end products, the condition of the displays is horrible. Broken tiles, dirty bath fixtures, broken faucet components….
It used to be the place to go a dream about what you would want to do in a remodel. The one in Torrance, CA has very dated products. It seems like they haven’t changed their displays in 4 years.
This is totally about Lowe’s. My friend who sells windows for HD says they took a huge hit with female customers after the Lowe’s opened in Burbank. And Lowe’s carries better looking merchandise- I shopped both stores for a screen door and various light fixtures recently, and found Lowe’s buyers’ taste to be much more like mine, and I’m talking about the cheap stuff, not designer merch. This is like Target vs. WalMart aesthetics. One is a little more sophisticated and design-conscious, and the other is strictly middle of the road cheap+functionable.
This move is totally about Lowe’s. In LA, HD took a huge hit with their female customers when Lowe’s opened in Burbank.
I recently shopped both stores looking for a screen door and various light fixtures, and found much better-designed merch at Lowe’s at the same price range as HD.
It’s kind of like Target vs. Walmart’s aesthetics- one is a bit more sophisticated, while the other is function plus no taste. If I’m looking to buy a bunch of inexpensive merchandise, I’m going to look for as much style as I can get.
@mwynn13: Whoops. go away.
You know, I like working on projects around the house, but I find that Home Depot just isn't attuned to my needs as a woman and a mother. Everything is so, you know, manly and sawdust-y, it just makes me feel intimidated. And those power tools are so big and scary-looking…
@mantari: A gay friend of mine already calls it that. He elaborated by way of explaining HD’s attractiveness as a gay hangout, “I think it’s the combination of power tools and interior decorating.”
As for “Her Depot,” this is a marketing approach that has been a known loser for at least 51 years. In 1956, Dodge tried to convince women they needed a car called the “La Femme” which was painted in girly colors and came with a makeup kit that matched the upholstery. Think Barbie car for grown ups. Guess what. It was a total flop.
I work at Home Depot and i have never seen the male employees hoot at women, i do know that if they think she is attractive they will be a bit more persistant on helping her. So you should be flattered if anything, and the men at my store(most) dont think of girls as weak and stupid, i had an old associate get mad at male customers who complained about having me help them load things that were 40-60 pounds. They complained because i was a girl and i guess in some way i was insulting them by giving them, a male, my help. This associate made it clear that i was fully capible of lifting more than a girl would normaly lift while shopping for meat for her husbands dinner
I would avoid that shop not only because it is sexist, but more because I want a proper selection when I go to a massive hardware store.
Maybe though it would be good for older women, because definitely one of my grandmothers would not be able to walk the length and breadth of HD comfortably.
My other grandmother is more fit that I am, OTOH. So maybe it is not actually useful for any demographic.