Since the invention of the home improvement big box in 1979 in Atlanta, we have had almost 50 years of the format. The first home improvement big box arrived in Canada in 1992. But the conventional wisdom has always been that pros find the large-surface format a waste of time.
But as Mark Twain wrote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, does approximately half of its US$160 billion revenue with professional tradesmen. Last year, Home Depot bought SRS Distribution, a distributor to pros, for a staggering $18.25 billion.
Last summer, Home Depot opened its first Flatbed Distribution Centre (FDC) in Toronto. It serves contractor jobsites direct. Contractors who shop at 54 Home Depot stores in the Greater Toronto Area.
Now RONA, the second-largest big box operator in Canada, last year hired Jamal Hamad, the former head of contractor business at Home Depot. Hamad has spearheaded the opening of RONA’s own version of the FDC, called the Direct Delivery Centre, in Hamilton, Ont.
We reached out to a well-known plumber, Danielle Browne, who plies her trade in St. John’s, N.L. We asked Danielle whether attitudes have changed among contractors about big boxes. Yes, she said.
“I think I saw it coming about five years ago. I think they’re going to be successful, too. A lot of my friends are shifting over in the States. And they’re also shifting over to straight online. It’s about the bottom dollar. I think in the larger areas of North America, you’re going to see that take over.”
