Home Depot forges ties with millennial shoppers

ATLANTA — Reports of the death of home ownership are exaggerated, Home Depot has concluded from its research and outreach with millennials. At one time, Merchandising EVP Ted Decker told Business Insider, the company was concerned the millennial generation might simply rent forever. Five summers ago, however, Home Depot assembled a group of young interns from backgrounds ranging from design to computer programming to the liberal arts. “We brought them all together and we said, ‘All right, you’re a millennial. Your job this summer is to tell us what’s relevant to you and what’s not relevant to you in Home Depot, in-store and online,’” Decker said, adding the feedback was encouraging. “The older millennials now are entering that home ownership in similar penetrations, as you know, maybe not as much as the baby boomers, but still much more on the norm than what we were seeing in 2010.”