Man, I hate to hear this. I cant stand this. I pray that things change soon! I have never been to the design expo here but will be sure to go before the closing. Or maybe I shouldnt since its closing. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh

we, the consumer have perpetuated a vicious cycle. when the economy began looking shaky the middle of 2008 people started to hold onto their money in the event they would be laid off.

well, by not spending their extra money, the businesses they used to frequent weren’t able to pay their employees, let alone purchase more merchandise or in the case of restaurants, foodstuffs. therefore, the businesses who are not receiving orders for manufactured goods are laying off employees. the businesses who ordered manufactured goods are laying off employees.

the consumer is being laid off.

i realise it is much more complex than this with the fall of equity, the tightening of credit, and the drop in construction and remodeling as a result.

there is a massive game of dominoes being played right now.

the loss of the HD Expo breaks my heart. seriously, it is a rather unique source for the homeowner to locate a wide range of fixtures for the home. there are not many other retail venues like it.

as an employee at circuit city told a friend of mine last week, “where were you guys the week before? we had merchandise on sale for less than today when the liquidators took over. now the stores are crowded with people looking for nonexistent bargains as the liquidators aim to get the most money possible.”

yeah, we have brought this on ourselves.

Man, all of this is so sad. Huge chains keep closing because of the state of the economy and people keep losing their jobs. It’s horrible to see our country at a time like this. I wish all of the people who lost their jobs the best of luck. Hopefully no other stores close — this is all just too devastating.

not to be completely insensitive — but does this mean major clearance on awesome stuff?

Both my husband and I work at THD’s corporate location (and thankfully still have jobs). While it doesn’t impact us directly, many of our friends have been laid off today. Praying for all who lost their jobs!

Oh – Yardbirds were smaller format (75% smaller than the orange box stores) home improvement stores in the San Fran area. They were closer to a hardware store, but did have some design elements.

I second Niki R…hope we are not being insensitive. I am also hoping that the regular Home Depots that remain will begin to carry some more “design-y” merchandise to satisfy the market that remains for some higher-end stuff. I have found that Lowes does a better job of this than Home Depot, but I always attributed that to the fact that Home Depot had its Expo stores.

I haven’t seen any of their Design Centers, but there are a couple of Expo stores near here, and I won’t particularly miss them. They’ve always struck me as “Home Depot with sample displays” more than anything else. The designs I saw when I went in rarely appealed, so I stopped going in to them.

Being in Canada it seems like there are fewer big corporate layoffs, but there have been a lot of manufacturing jobs lost in smaller companies. It’s sad, but like most other things it’s a cycle that hopefully will balance out sooner rather than later.

And the ring thing? I wear all of my jewelry all the time :)

It’s so tragic. This cycle is so vicious. It’s not that I purposely held back from spending in ’08… it’s more like I have student loans and a mortgage to pay off, so that’s where “extra” cash goes.

I can’t help but feel that this isn’t something that just magically happened to America. We started it somehow, and it’s horrible how many people are suffering. My husband’s been out of work for a month now. It’s tough!

Best wishes to employees of HD!!

Here in Phoenix, we have Expo and Lowe’s answer to that is The Great Indoors. Both were/ are overpriced, so I’m not surprised that Expo is closing. There is still a lot of building here, but even at the height of the construction boom, Expo always seemed pretty quiet. I think all of the DIY’ers went directly to Home Depot, and those that had contractors or were building new went to places to specialized in individual items.

I have seen the exact same ceiling fan be more expensive at an Expo Design Center than at the Home Depot store. It made me think that many other things were overpriced simply because it catered to a higher echelon of consumers. I have enjoyed seeing their displays, and the employees seemed to be very informed. But I, like many others in this economy, ARE scaling back and just can’t afford the bulk of the items they sell. I must be insensitive, too, because my very first thought was “BIG SALE!”–not that people were being laid off. We’re building a house and need all the help we can get. But it is a horrible situation, and I hope that these folks can find good work elsewhere very soon.

FYI — The Great Indoors is owned by Sears, not Lowes.

This is so sad to hear, but thanks for letting us know.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts…I work at the Home Depot Store Support Center in Visual Merchandising and was just let go today!! It was truly heartbreaking to leave all the great, creative people that I worked with…This economy is just SO tough! I learned a ton working there, though, and can hopefully carry my knowledge with me to my next job. I’ll keep you guys posted if I hear of any EXPO-related sales…I would think there will be bargains to be had coming up soon.

And, I totally agree…The Design Center in Charlotte is gorgeous. Wish THD could afford to do more of those. My (former) team travelled up there to see it when it first opened, and I could’ve emptied my checkbook right then and there!

I thought The Great Indoors was owned by Sears. Anybody know for sure?

Oh my goodness. How sad! We actually have a Yardbirds Home Depot in town (live in Petaluma, CA- about 30 miles north of San Francisco). It’s basically a small version of HD. You can’t really find everything, but they have a good selection of the basics + paint + garden. I just went the last three days…I can’t believe it’ll be gone soon. It’s only about 2 years old.

oh. my. god.

I have just found your blog via 2excitednests, and I’m in heaven. I have seriously spent my entire evening (which was supposed to be dedicated to laundry) reading your blog and all about your wedding. AMAZING!!!!

Our prayers are with the families who lost their jobs today. This is certainly a difficult time.

From a business perspective, it definitely makes sense to close these centers. We have one by us and there’s no question that the premium service Expo provided simply isn’t viable in today’s economy. As their CEO noted, even in a housing boom the idea wasn’t all that well conceived. I’m glad, though, to see THD projecting a $1.73 profit/share for this year closing. It indicates a strength in their core business that will hopefully stay any other layoffs at their namesake stores.

I am so mad! I live in Charlotte and LOVE the Design Center. We just bought our first home, so the Design Center was a great place to go to get ideas. :(

to those laid off, i hope you have better success in transitioning to something else than i.

i have been unemployed since july 2008. competition is high for remaining jobs. the more people laid off in all industries, the more applying for the few jobs which are advertised.

having been through this cycled in the early 1990s i know it will turn around. hopefully sooner than later.

we need construction jobs. they employ people over a wide spectrum. to trickle down to the Home Depots and Lowes stores, we first need lenders, architects, engineers, loggers, millworkers, truckers, general contractors, roofers, furnishing manufacturers, etc.

We used to have a yardbirds (I live about 20 min. from San Francisco), but it became a home depot about the time these changes were being made, I have no clue how that helped, but who can follow the decisions of these corporations anyway! :)