Bernie Marcus, who came up with a revolutionary business idea in the late 1970s — create a do-it-yourself, big-box suburban outlet that would seem more warehouse than store — and, with a partner, turned it into the Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer — died on Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 95.
His death was announced on his Facebook page.
Mr. Marcus had just been fired as chief executive of a California-based hardware chain in 1978 when he hit on the idea of a store — nothing fancy — that would appeal mainly to the weekend warrior doing repairs and making improvements around the house and yard. The formula was simple: Stock the shelves to the ceiling with a vast selection of every conceivable home-improvement product at discount prices, and hire knowledgeable salespeople to double as customer advisers.
He and his partner, Arthur Blank, a former colleague at the California chain, Handy Dan, launched Home Depot that year. Its first outlet was opened in Atlanta with the backing of the Wall Street financier Ken Langone. Today, Home Depot boasts more than 2,300 stores across North America, with more than $150 billion in annual revenue.
Mr. Marcus oversaw the company’s explosive growth as chief executive for its first 19 years and chairman until 2002. Along the way he, Mr. Blank and Mr. Langone became billionaires; they also lined the pockets of legions of Home Depot employees who had received generous stock options.
“He was an inspiring visionary,” Mr. Blank, who succeeded Mr. Marcus as chief executive in 1997, said in an interview for this obituary. “He was a retailer who was often able to see around corners that others couldn’t see.”
Mr. Marcus’s Home Depot concept challenged conventional industry wisdom about a number of things, beginning with square footage. Competitors like Handy Dan operated stores no bigger than 35,000 square feet. But as he and Mr. Blank wrote, with Bob Andelman, in “Built From Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot From Nothing to $30 Billion” (1999), Mr. Marcus envisioned warehouse-style outlets of 55,000 to 75,000 square feet. He insisted on buying merchandise directly from manufacturers, eliminating the middlemen and, indeed, actual warehouses, so that, as the partners wrote, “we could give their profit back to our customers in price reductions.”
The founders projected annual sales of $7 million to $9 million per store, with profit margins of 29 to 31 percent — “unheard of in an industry that banked on profit margins of 42 to 47 percent,” they wrote. The anticipated high volume would offset the lower margins.
Mr. Blank was skeptical at first. “When I did our first five-year plan,” he said, “before we had any stores and were trying to find potential investors, I called him and said, ‘Bernie, based on the parameters we set up, these numbers don’t work. There’s not enough volume in these stores to support the inventory levels, the payroll and the margins. The math doesn’t work.’ Bernie said, ‘Just change the numbers.’ We had no idea what the store volumes would be, but his optimism turned out to be true.”
Mr. Langone, the Wall Street investor, arranged $2 million in financing for the first Home Depot outlet. As an investor in Handy Dan, he had gotten to know and admire Mr. Marcus when Mr. Marcus was the chain’s chief executive. In 1978, Mr. Marcus and Mr. Blank were fired by Sanford C. Sigoloff, the chief executive of Handy Dan’s parent company, Daylin, as part of a restructuring. A despondent Mr. Marcus contacted Mr. Langone with the news. At 49, he was out of work and depressed about his prospects.
“That’s the greatest news I ever heard,” Mr. Marcus recalled Mr. Langone telling him. “You have just been kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe.” Having once discussed Mr. Marcus’s vision for a home improvement superstore, Mr. Langone suggested that day that they go into business together.
Aghast at what he perceived as Mr. Sigoloff’s dismissive attitude toward employees, Mr. Marcus vowed to treat his employees better. Home Depot employees were called “associates” and were not only paid more than the minimum wage; they also received stock options. According to Mr. Langone, more than 3,000 of the company’s original employees — including former secretaries and sales associates who never reached management level — became millionaires as the company’s fortunes soared. The company would eventually employ more than half a million people.
Bernard Marcus was born in Newark on May 12, 1929, to Sara and Joe Marcus, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was a cabinet maker, but the family struggled financially during the Great Depression. His mother, who had crippling rheumatoid arthritis, was nevertheless his main influence. In the book he and Mr. Blank wrote, Mr. Marcus said: “My mom taught me most of the beliefs I possess today, especially that you have only so much physical and mental energy. Don’t spend time replaying the past; it only keeps you from focusing on the future.”
Mr. Marcus earned money for college by working as a busboy at a hotel in the Catskills. During his final year at Rutgers University in New Jersey, he believed he had received a scholarship to Harvard Medical School. He was shocked when he was told he would need to come up with $10,000 in order to enter Harvard, which had a quota on Jews at its medical school.
In despair and unable to afford the tuition, Mr. Marcus quit school and spent a year in Florida. His mother persuaded him to return to Rutgers, where he earned a degree in pharmacy.
In 1968, he joined the Handy Dan chain, where he established an immediate rapport with Mr. Blank. Mr. Marcus was the outgoing visionary with comedic timing; Mr. Blank was the operations guru who made things work behind the scenes.
By 1972, Mr. Marcus was the company’s president and chairman. That year he divorced his wife, Ruth Rados. In 1973, he married Billi Morris. She survives him, as do a son, Frederick R. Marcus, from his first marriage; a stepson, Michael A. Morris; and seven grandchildren. His daughter, Susanne, died in 2021.
When Mr. Marcus and Mr. Blank were let go by Mr. Sigoloff in 1978, they found the sweetest revenge in starting a company that eventually put Handy Dan out of business. So determined was Mr. Marcus to succeed that he stood outside the first Home Depot store handing out dollar bills to lure people inside.
He retired as chairman and chief executive in 2002. Mr. Blank had retired as co-chairman the previous year.
Mr. Marcus devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy and to supporting right-wing political causes. He gave $250 million to the City of Atlanta for the construction of the Georgia Aquarium, one of the world’s largest, which opened in 2005. In 1991, he and his wife established the Marcus Institute, now called the Marcus Autism Center, which provides programs for children and adolescents with brain disorders, especially autism. His philanthropic Marcus Foundation has given more than $2.7 billion to organizations supporting medical research, Jewish causes, free enterprise, veterans’ initiatives, national security and children’s health, according to his Facebook page.
A staunch Republican, Mr. Marcus was a major donor to the party, an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama and a vocal backer of Donald J. Trump. Bernie and Billi Marcus donated millions to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaigns and to other Republican candidates.
Faced with calls for a boycott of Home Depot stores in 2019 because of his support for Mr. Trump, the chain distanced itself from Mr. Marcus’s causes, issuing a statement saying that it did not endorse presidential candidates.
The post Bernie Marcus, Home Depot Co-Founder, Is Dead at 95 appeared first on New York Times.
