How A Bleeding Orange Culture Can Change Everything!

The Inside Story

Here is the inside story of how The Home Depot grew from its first few stores in 1979 to become the largest home-improvement retailer in the world today. This book chronicles the founding, growth, stagnation, and rebirth of this great American retail success story. The first half describes how the magic of a Bleeding Orange culture made this story possible and revolutionized the way building material products are sold. The second half delves into the following ten principles of high-productivity retailing gleaned from this amazing success story.

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Breakthrough Retailing

Here is the inside story of how The Home Depot grew from its first few stores in 1979 to become the largest home-improvement retailer in the world today. This book chronicles the founding, growth, stagnation, and rebirth of this great American retail success story. The first half describes how the magic of a Bleeding Orange culture made this story possible and revolutionized the way building material products are sold. The second half delves into the following ten principles of high-productivity retailing gleaned from this amazing success story.

Learn More

Pre-Order on Amazon

Acclaim for Breakthrough Retailing

"The Home Depot revolutionized so many areas of the retail business, and for the first time one of the people who was there gives you an inside look at how it was done. This is a book that everyone in the retail business should read, and people in other industries will also gather some great advice on how to run their businesses."

— Chris Roush, Dean and Professor, School of Communications,
Quinnipiac University, Author of Inside Home Depot

"In Breakthrough Retailing, both a compelling and entertaining story of the building of Home Depot’s incredible culture as well as a textbook on the principles of developing a successful retail enterprise, home-improvement industry legend Jim Inglis shares his wide-ranging experiences of an amazing career."

— Paul Hylbert, Chairman, Kodiak Building Partners

"Breakthrough Retailing chronicles Jim’s journey and the changes and evolutions of Home Depot in a well-paced manner, and it is almost hypnotic in the way that it draws you into the tale of this amazing business. It was also interesting to think of many of the changes and evolutions that The Home Depot has made that have flowed into Bunnings’ DNA as well."

— Michael Schneider, Managing Director Bunnings Ltd,
Australia and New Zealand

"Breakthrough Retailing provides the present and future fundamentals on which to build a successful home-improvement business. The principles that Jim exhibits, plus his tireless support, allowed the formation of the largest and most successful home improvement chain in Latin America."

— Enrique Gundermann, Chairman Ikea,
Chile, Peru, & Colombia

About The Author

Jim Inglis

James W. Inglis is a world-renowned expert with sixty years of experience in the retail home-improvement industry. He served in executive positions with The Home Depot for thirteen years, where he held the titles of Vice President of Merchandising, West Coast; Executive Vice President of Merchandising; and Executive Vice president, Strategic Development.

He also served as a member of the Corporate Board of Directors. Jim has helped shape the industry worldwide as a special adviser to the boards of leading home-improvement retailers around the world: Sodimac, Santiago, Chile, the largest building material and home center company in South America, operating in seven Latin American countries; Hornbach, Bornheim, Germany, one of the largest home center chains in Germany, operating in nine Western and Eastern European countries; Bunnings Warehouse, Melbourne, Australia, the dominant home center operator in Australia and New Zealand; and Komeri, Niigata, Japan, which operates more than 1,200 stores selling hardware, home, and agricultural supplies in Japan.

The Latest from Jim

Hard Truths Escaping From The Closet

by Jim Inglis

While retailers rush to increase their gross on-line sales, cost escalate. According to Chain Store Age, The National Retail Federation reports that 20.8% of all on-line sales in 2021 were returned. Further, every $100 in returns has an average cost of $10.30 to the...

Poor Pricing Policies Destroy a Brand’s Image and the Customer’s Trust

by Jim Inglis

Percentage-off sales never build loyalty but can destroy price image. It is never wise to tell customers that there is a good time to buy and a bad time to buy. It is not good to refer to your normal everyday prices as the high price example. Comparison pricing should...

Good Strategy — Bad Marketing

by Jim Inglis

It is good strategy for a home center, like Lowes, to pursue the Pro customer. However, it is important to realize that while the volume may grow from 25% to even 45% of sales, The Pro customers will be less than 5% of the traffic count. Now the question is: Why would...

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Retail Detail #3 of 50

Most retailers price defensively and consider pricing a threat. Winning

retailers price offensively and consider pricing a tool.

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Retail Detail #5 of 50

The best loyalty program is simply to be the best store! Give the customer

no reason to shop elsewhere.

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Retail Detail #6 of 50

When you focus on the customer first, the right numbers are likely to

follow. The opposite is not true when you start with the numbers.

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Retail Detail #13 of 50

There are two types of people: those who see an opportunity and say

Why? and those who see the same opportunity and say, Why Not?

The latter group are the merchants.

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Retail Detail #19 of 50

Most customers do not trust most retailers—and they shouldn’t.

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Retail Detail #22 of 50

When all vendors get their fair share of your product assortment and shelf

space, you cannot possibly be buying at the lowest cost.

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Retail Detail #36 of 50

Customer accommodation is always better than customer manipulation.

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Retail Detail #39 of 50

Remember that we make zero gross profit dollars when the customer is

standing a competitor’s store.

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Retail Detail #41 of 50

Any time products stop moving, costs escalate.

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Contact

Jim Inglis is President of Inglis Retailing and available to address merchandising and marketing issues within the retail industry. This may include speaking engagements, merchandising workshops, or video conferencing.
You can get in touch with Jim using the form.