In a pinch, the merchandising guru of the group, Pat Farrah, asked suppliers to give Home Depot empty boxes in lieu of actual merchandise, Langone, now"Pat Farrah, one of the four founders — Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Pat Farrah and me — Pat went out and persuaded the vendors, 'OK, you won't give us any more merchandise because you're afraid we will be able to pay you. Give us empty boxes with your labels on,'" Langone says. The suppliers obliged.
"So we put all over the store — all these shelves 20-foot high — we had these boxes and everybody thought, 'Oh my God! Look at all this merchandise!' But there was air in the boxes. There was no products. They just gave us empty boxes. And we struggled," Langone says."Early on, Bernie would stay outside with the fist of single dollar bills and give people a dollar if they'd go in and see what was in the store," Langone tells CNBC Make It.
At the time, other competitive home center stores were 30,000 to 40,000 square feet, says Langone. Their first stores were 60,000 square feet. Today, Home Depot stores are more than 100,000 square feet.
MakeIt Simple idea and soul of Home Depot. Our associates!!!!
MakeIt Is this the duck face that donates money to trump aka ImpeachedForLife realDonaldTrump
MakeIt I'm not sure if he's a billionaire, but if he is, he probably belongs on my favorites list as well.
MakeIt GENIUS. Whatever it takes.
MakeIt Is that legal? 😅 of is there no problem as long as you are not doing the same with the books
MakeIt If Home Depot is a trump supporter then I will be a Lowe's costumer from now on. Don't support con Don!
MakeIt marshal vieux
MakeIt Shop at Lowe’s. They don’t donate to support trump.
MakeIt No wonder he loves Trump!!! Fakers of a feather flock together!!
MakeIt
MakeIt love it 🥰🤙🏻
MakeIt And he said he and his wife receive $48,000 in social security. Hope they give it to charity.
MakeIt i do hate life on this earth here sometimes. i mean, that's not something pleasant 😓
MakeIt Ken Langone les agradece su gran aportación a la empresa pabloglzc RickyTafich
MakeIt I've seen this story a million times, how many more times can i expect you to retweet this. Just asking so i can decide if i should unfollow
MakeIt The workers are grossly underpaid, and there is no union!
MakeIt Great marketing. I’ve always found the marketing and lying line to be very close together
MakeIt Is that the guy who endorsed Trump? (I'm too lazy to Google, really.)
MakeIt Now they block the aisles so you can't get your cart thru.