Which Fortune 500 company opened the first Home Depot store in 1979?

The Home Depot opened its first stores in 1979.

Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ken Langone, Pat Farrah, and Ron Brill founded the company after Marcus and Blank left their previous retail positions. The first Home Depot locations opened in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1979.

The company’s warehouse-style stores offered a broad selection of home-improvement products, often at prices intended to appeal to do-it-yourself customers and professional contractors. Its large-format approach helped distinguish it from smaller hardware stores.

The Home Depot is sometimes confused with Lowe’s because both became major U.S. home-improvement chains. Lowe’s, however, was founded earlier, in 1946. The Home Depot’s notable founding milestone is the opening of its first stores in 1979, followed by rapid expansion across the United States.