The Home Depot was co-founded by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, Pat Farrah, and Ken Langone in 1978.

Values like respect among all people, excellent customer service and giving back to communities and society[9]On June 22, 1979, the first two stores, built in spaces leased from J. C. Penney that were originally Treasure Island "hypermarket" (discount department and grocery) stores, opened in metro Atlanta (in Doraville and on Memorial Drive in Decatur, both near I-285).

"[22] In 2004, Home Depot employees at a suburban Detroit store in Harper Woods, Michigan, rejected a bid to be represented by a labor union, voting 115 to 42 against joining the United Food and Commercial Workers.

[30] Five months later The Home Depot sold HD Supply to a consortium of three private equity firms, The Carlyle Group, Bain Capital and Clayton, Dubilier and Rice (with each agreeing to buy a one-third stake in the division).

[32][33] In 2008 and 2009, with the downturn in the housing market, The Home Depot announced the layoff of several thousand associates, as well as the closing of 54 stores nationwide, including the entire EXPO Design Center chain.

[42][43] In January 2022, The Home Depot announced Craig Menear would be stepping down as the CEO and president effective March 1, 2022, while continuing to serve as the chairman of the board.

[62] In 2012, Home Depot VP of Corporate Communication Stephen Holmes stated that the company had no plans for additional fuel centers or growth in that area.

[71] Interline Brands (renamed in 2018 as The Home Depot Pro) has over 90 distribution centers throughout the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico that serve customer needs for MRO supplies.

It has contributed over $200 million in time, labor, money, and supplies to a number of causes, including Habitat for Humanity, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center, and playground construction organization KaBOOM!

Since 1993, the "Team Depot" program has provided grants to veteran-based organizations and has workers from a local store do volunteer work that would benefit veterans.

The Home Builders Institute will use the money to train veterans and U.S. Army soldiers, high school students, and disadvantaged youth.

Home Depot executives said that as the world's largest buyer of construction material, their company had the power to persuade thousands of suppliers, homebuilders, and consumers to follow its lead on environment sustainability.

[89] This program is following The Home Depot's promise in the late 1990s to eliminate the number of sales of lumber from endangered forests in countries including Chile and Indonesia.

Company co-founder Arthur Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons franchise of the National Football League in February 2002; Blank later acquired an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer, Atlanta United FC, in April 2014 with the soccer club beginning play in March 2017.

[93][94] The Home Depot is a sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

"Home Depot's PAC gives money based on a candidate's voting record, committee assignment and leadership position," said company spokesman Jerry Shields.

[102][103][104] According to the watchdog group Documented, in 2020, The Home Depot contributed $125,000 to the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

[105] In April 2021, black faith leaders in Georgia called for a nationwide boycott of The Home Depot after the company did not take a stand against the Election Integrity Act of 2021.

[106][107][108] Georgia Governor Brian Kemp criticized the boycott, saying "this insanity needs to stop" and contending that it "puts partisan politics ahead of people's paychecks.

"[109][110] In 2023, Home Depot Vice President of Asset Protection Scott Glenn urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at combating organized retail crime groups by testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence.

The bill was introduced to Congress earlier this year and would serve to increase federal coordination with state and local law enforcement in the fight against retail crime.

[117][118][119] In 1993, Home Depot opened its first and only store in Peru, however, low sales and weak promotion for the brand led to its closure the following year.

In July 2005, former employee Michael Davis, represented by attorney Mark D. Schwartz, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Home Depot, alleging that his discharge was in retaliation for refusing to make unwarranted back charges against vendors.

The trial initially was concluded in June 2006, but in April 2007, U.S. Department of Labor Judge Pamela Lakes Wood ordered the case reopened after the Home Depot's law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld revealed that the retail giant's in-house counsel had told them that two Home Depot employees who testified at the trial had lied.

In response to Akin Gump's revelation, Davis' attorney, Schwartz, asked for the case to be reopened to permit further questioning of the witnesses.

[121] Powell v. Home Depot USA, Inc. (2008cv61862) (2011) was a decision by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida concerning patent infringement on a "safe hands" device that Michael Powell, an independent contractor for Home Depot, created in response to injuries to the hands of associates using in-store radial arm saws.

[124] In the wake of the 2011 Joplin tornado in which the walls of a Home Depot collapsed after being hit by an EF5 tornado, The Kansas City Star, citing engineers, criticized Home Depot's practice of using tilt-up construction in hundreds of its big-box stores (other nearby big-box stores in Joplin, including a Walmart and Academy Sports + Outdoors, which had concrete block construction, lost their roofs but the walls remained intact).

The engineers told the Star that the practice, while normally safe and efficient, is dangerous in major storms because once the roof is lifted (as happened in Joplin) the walls collapse in a domino effect.

On September 18, 2014, Home Depot released a statement saying that the hackers obtained a total of 56 million credit card numbers as a result of the breach.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, for the alleged failure to provide a reasonable accommodation for a cashier with cancer at its Towson, Maryland, store and then for purportedly firing her because of her condition.