Staples vs Home Depot (The)
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
Largest US office supplies retailer with ~916 stores. Pivoting to services (printing, shipping, passports) and in-store partnerships with Verizon and Party City.
About
Staples is the largest office supplies retailer in the United States, founded in 1986 in Brighton, Massachusetts. The company pioneered the office superstore format and built its brand on the promise of making office supply purchasing convenient and affordable for businesses and consumers alike. Staples was taken private by Sycamore Partners in 2017 and has since been undergoing a significant strategic transformation away from commodity product retail toward services-led revenue.\n\nStaples operates approximately 916 US retail stores and a large B2B commercial division serving businesses directly. The company's retail stores have evolved into multi-service destinations offering printing, shipping, passport photo services, and in-store partnerships with Verizon and Apple — making stores a hub for business services rather than just product sales. The B2B commercial division, which serves small businesses and enterprise accounts with recurring supply contracts, has become the more strategically important revenue stream as retail foot traffic has declined.\n\nStaples generates substantial revenue across its retail and commercial segments, though the company does not disclose detailed financials as a private entity. Its 2025–2026 strategy focuses on growing the services footprint in stores, expanding the B2B commercial business through direct sales and e-commerce, and differentiating from Amazon Business through the combination of physical presence, service offerings, and category expertise. The pivot to services represents a credible response to the existential challenge that e-commerce has posed to traditional office supply retail.
World's largest home improvement retailer; $159.5B FY2024 revenue; $18.25B SRS Distribution acquisition expands Pro specialty distribution by $50B TAM; Pro now ~50% of revenues.
About
The Home Depot is the world's largest home improvement retailer, founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah in Atlanta, Georgia, and now headquartered in Atlanta and trading on NYSE (HD). The company operates approximately 2,340 stores across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and generated approximately $159.5 billion in total revenues for fiscal year 2024 (ending January 2025) under CEO Ted Decker. The strategic anchor of 2024 was the completed $18.25 billion acquisition of SRS Distribution—a leading professional roofing, pool, and landscaping products distributor—which dramatically expands Home Depot's reach into the professional contractor market and extends its addressable market by an estimated $50 billion in professional specialty trade distribution.
AI Visibility Head-to-Head
Key Details
Capabilities & Ecosystem
Also Compare
Track AI Visibility in Real Time
Monitor how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Grok daily.