Home Depot Cutting Prices To Win Back Customers
September 22, 2008 
As the world continues to raise prices, Home Depot plans to lower them. The hardware chain plans to cut prices on an assortment of items this week–possibly as many as 1,200–to boost anemic sales and win back customers who’ve ditched it for Lowe’s and Wal-Mart.
Prices will be cut between 5 and 50 percent and last through the next quarter at the very least, the Associated Press reports. Although Home Depot did not not say what the average reduction will be or indicate which items in its garden centers will specifically be lowered, a spokesperson says one of every 25 items found on store shelves will be discounted.
“We’re trying to gain market share in the process,” says Craig Menear, Home Depot’s executive vice president of merchandising. “Absolutely, we’re trying to drive sales and productivity.
During the second quarter this year, Home Depot’s same-store sales fell 7.9 percent. One analyst, Cowen & Company’s Laura Champine, told the AP the discounts will likely bring more shoppers into stores.
“Everyone’s trying to drive traffic,” she says. “I think in general, there’s a reason consumers aren’t in stores.”
To read a full version of the AP story, click here.
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