Home Depot became supplier to millions in year of pandemic

The housing market was among the very few bright spots for the U.S. economy in the year of the lockdown and Home Depot became its supplier, racking up an unprecedented $132 billion in sales for 2020.

Sales grew stronger in the final quarter of the year, surging 25% to $32.26 billion. That is up from $25.78 billion in the same period last year and exceeded even the lofty projections for $30.66 billion on Wall Street, according to a survey of analysts by Zacks Investment Research.

Home improvement stores became a beehive during the pandemic with millions working from home and attending school remotely. Many families concluded bigger homes, or at least different homes, were the answer in 2020, driving prices sky high.

On Tuesday, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20city home price index recorded a 10.1% spike in December, compared with the same month last year.

While Home Depot was not alone in meeting the demand for hammers, paint or appliances that go along with a housing boom, the sheer volume of goods it sold this year was staggering.

Attempting to put that volume into context, Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData, calculated that in 2020 the equivalent of every person in the United States spent $402 at Home Depot.

“It is easy to look at Home Depot’s numbers and chalk up its success to the pandemic,” Saunders said Tuesday. “However, sustaining three quarters of growth above 20% is extremely difficult in terms of the pressure it puts on the whole operation from supply chains to stores.”