Sprawl-Busters reported recently that Home Depot was experimenting with gas stations. The home improvement store has indicated that it hopes to have 300 stores with gas stations within the next five years. The National Petroleum News reports that these “Home Depot Fuel” stations also come with a convenience store as well. Home Depot customers in the Nashville, Tennessee area can now gas up at Home Depot, and grab a Coke with chips before leaving the parking lot. The first Home Depot convenience store opened last month in Brentwood, Tennessee. The other three Nashville-area Home Depot Fuel sites are expected to open within the next three months.The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Home Depot gas stations are expected to add $5 to $7 million in sales annually to the host store’s bottom line. The convenience stores could add $1.5 billion to Home Depot’s total sales by 2010. Convenience stores will attract construction contractors who come to the Home Depot. “We think the economics here will be attractive,” a Home Depot spokesman told the NPN. “Pro customers are the heaviest weekday users of convenience stores.”
Just what the environment needs: more gas stations. It was only a matter of time before Home Depot imitated Wal-Mart’s plunge into gas, which began more than ten years ago. Now many of the large discount and grocery stores are offering gas stations in their parking lots. This movement has created “Gas Wars” in many regions. for home improvement stores, gas is just a loss leader, as are convenience stores, designed to pull more customers into the parking lot more often. For earlier stories about big box in the gas business, search Newsflash by “gas”. for information about how to stop such gas stations, contact [email protected]