Home Depot Exits the EXPO business

Home Depot finally decided to close down its higher-end EXPO Design Center business. It's a strategic move long in the making... it was far more difficult than they ever imagined to operate their bread-and-butter "orange boxes" as well as these higher-end design centers. It's a classic example of internal inconsistency in a strategy; the activities and capabilities required to run a Home Depot store are quite different than those required to operate a design center successfully. With this decision, we see Home Depot moving closer to its original roots. Over the past few years, it has gradually been shedding ancillary businesses and refocusing on the "orange boxes." It's a smart move, given that the core business suffered badly as they diversified into other businesses over the past decade.