The ENTIRE History of Home Depot in 16 Minutes

#HistoryDocumentary #BusinessDocumentary #BusinessHistory Home Depot history and the Bernie Marcus story: how two executives fired on the same day in 1978 built the biggest home improvement retailer on Earth, starting with empty boxes on the shelves and dollar bills nobody would take, built on orange aprons, warehouse prices, and the Saturday morning when you decide you can fix it yourself. This history of Home Depot covers Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ken Langone, how Home Depot started, the Home Depot business model, the Lowe's rivalry, Bob Nardelli, the SRS acquisition, and why fewer customers are walking through its doors in 2026. Home Depot runs 2,364 stores across the U.S., Canada and Mexico and employs about half a million people. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, it sold $47.9 billion worth of goods and earned $4.8 billion, but customer transactions fell about 1% as homeowners put big projects on hold. This documentary follows the complete history of Home Depot: Bernie Marcus's childhood in Newark, Handy Dan, the 1978 firing by Sanford Sigoloff, Arthur Blank, Ken Langone, the Ross Perot deal that collapsed over a company car, raising $2 million from 40 investors, Pat Farrah, the empty boxes stacked on the shelves, the first store in Atlanta on June 22, 1979, the dollar bills nobody would take, the 1981 IPO, the orange apron and expert service, the warehouse store model, Lowe's and the orange-versus-blue rivalry, the kids' workshops, Expo Design Center, Bob Nardelli and his $210 million exit, Frank Blake, the failed expansion into China, the 2008 housing crash, the 2014 data breach, the pandemic boom, the $18 billion SRS Distribution acquisition, GMS, the death of Bernie Marcus in 2024, Arthur Blank and the Atlanta Falcons, Home Depot's 2026 results, Ted Decker's medical leave, and the shift from do-it-yourself to professional contractors. CHAPTERS 0:00 Home Depot History: Two Executives Fired on the Same Day 3:26 Bernie Marcus: The Pharmacist Who Never Became a Doctor 4:43 Ken Langone, Ross Perot and the Empty Boxes 6:00 Opening Day and the Dollar Bills Nobody Took 7:06 The Orange Apron, Lowe's and the Home Depot Business Model 9:46 Bob Nardelli and the $210 Million Exit 11:08 China, the Housing Crash, SRS and the Death of Bernie Marcus 13:30 Home Depot in 2026: Fewer Customers, Bigger Bills 15:23 Why Do-It-Yourself Is Being Tested 16:24 The Firing That Built an Empire A firing could not stop them. Empty shelves and an empty parking lot could not finish them. An outsider who nearly lost the culture could not break it. And in 2026, the store built on do-it-yourself is betting its future on the people you call when you would rather not. This Home Depot documentary is built on company filings, earnings reports, founder interviews, and verified reporting. Every episode tells the full story of a company, from founder to today, and reveals the one thing it was really built on. SOURCES Marcus, B. and Blank, A. with Andelman, B. (1999), Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion, Times Business Philanthropy Roundtable, Do It Yourself: The Story of Bernie Marcus CNN Money (2007), Nardelli out at Home Depot Retail Dive (2024), Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus dies The Home Depot (2026), The Home Depot Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Results Yahoo Finance (2026), The Home Depot Posts Record Sales Growth Amid CEO Leave #HomeDepot #HomeDepotHistory #BernieMarcus #HistoryOfHomeDepot #HomeImprovement #DIY #Lowes #BusinessDocumentary #HistoryDocumentary #CompanyHistory #BusinessHistory #RetailHistory #Documentary #Entrepreneur