Reply #8: Home Depot to close 15 underperforming US stores (Nardelli sports a bloody nose, twice) [View All]

ATLANTA - It's been 4 1/2 years since former Home Depot Chief Executive Bob Nardelli's bold prediction that the home improvement retailer could sustain "unlimited growth" without significantly affecting sales at established stores. <<KAPOW!>>

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The Atlanta-based company, under different leadership, a different growth philosophy and amid an ailing housing market, put the brakes Thursday on some of its future expansion plans and said it would do what was previously unthinkable — close 15 of its underperforming flagship stores.

It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store for performance reasons. The move, to be completed within the next two months, will affect 1,300 employees.

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Nardelli, now the chief at automaker Chrysler LLC, had other ideas on Nov. 18, 2003, when he told The Associated Press that The Home Depot Inc.'s robust new store growth would continue unabated and suggested the retailer may one day expand into Europe and Asia. <<KAPOW!>>

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The stores Home Depot said Thursday it plans to close consist of three in Wisconsin, two in Ohio, two in New Jersey, two in Indiana and one each in Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Dakota, New York and Vermont.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_bi_ge/home_depot_store_closings