Home Depot Customers Make Few Trips, But Buy Bigger Items

The Home Depot said its customer transactions fell roughly 6 percent last quarter, but average spending rose 11 percent when consumers did shop.

For the three months ending Aug. 1, the world’s largest home improvement retailer said it served 482 million customers in the second quarter, down from 512 million a year ago, with an average transaction value that hit $82.48 this year versus about $74 in Q2 2020.

The Atlanta-based retailer – which has about 500,000 employees across almost 2,300 stores in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico – on Tuesday (Aug. 17) reported that it had $41.1 billion in sales for the second quarter of the fiscal year, up 8.1 percent ($3.1 billion) from the same time a year ago.

“I am very proud of our associates, who continue to demonstrate a relentless focus on serving our customers,” said Craig Menear, chairman and CEO, in the Home Depot announcement. “As a result of their efforts, we achieved a milestone of over $40 billion in quarterly sales for the first time in company history,” he said. “I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to our team, as well as our supplier and supply chain partners, as they continue to operate in this dynamic and challenging environment.”

Related news: Supply Chain Concerns Rise As Focus Shifts To Holiday Shopping

As companies gear up for the holiday shopping season, Home Depot is renting its own cargo ships as it tries to work around supply chain issues triggered by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially as the Delta variant has caused another surge in positive cases.