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The Unexpected Name Home Depot Was Almost Given
By GRACIE REAMER
In 1978, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank sat in a Los Angeles coffee shop discussing a potential business endeavor that would go on to become The Home Depot — one of the world's largest and most popular home improvement retail stores. From its first opening in Atlanta, the franchise quickly grew to over 2,200 stores with 500,000 employees across three countries.
As a matter of fact, the franchise's original name was Bad Bernie's Buildall, and the logo was initially designed to be a man wearing a striped prison uniform. Fortunately, one of the company's first investors, Marjorie Buckley, quickly opted to make a change and came up with the name "The Home Depot" after coming across a train depot transformed into a restaurant.
The new name was simple, and both Marcus and Blank loved it and quickly jumped on it. The public liked it, too, because without the name "The Home Depot," the franchise would, perhaps, have never gotten as far as it has today.