More on Home Depot's new in-store merchandising program
From Hardlines, Inc.
Home Depot prepares for new in-store service program
TORONTO — The announced creation of a new in-store service team within Home Depot Canada continues to create concern throughout the vendor community. But it’s not a step the giant retailer has taken lightly — or made quickly.
The program, called MET, for “Merchandising Execution Team,” will involve the recruitment of more than 1,000 people to work within a newly formed vendor services team under Joe Allen, who was promoted last month to director, vendor services from his previous role as field merchandising for Eastern Canada. According to an internal memo from Gino 
DiGioacchino, vice-president merchandising for Home Depot Canada, the new team will be “an extension of the merchandising department, they will provide dedicated resources to our stores while playing a key role in driving in-store merchandising excellence for our division. A core leadership team [under Allen] will be assembled by April, beginning the development of the new vendor services team.”
The program will be piloted in November or December of this year, reportedly beginning with electrical, lighting and seasonal, but Home Depot couldn’t confirm which categories would get tested first. Following an undetermined trial period, the program will be rolled out to all stores — across all product categories — by the middle of 2011.
The MET program has already been tested and implemented in the U.S., “and it’s a disaster,” says one vendor who asked not to be named. It resulted, he says, in the vendors and their agencies effectively losing touch with their own products on the store shelves.
However, says DiGioacchino, the move to bring in-store service under Home Depot’s aegis has to do with centralizing the servicing of the stores. Home Depot is also introducing technology that will let vendors have full access to, and be able to track, their products throughout the system. “They will get accountability,” he stresses.
One of the things that hinders the current system, which leaves the service role in the hands of detailing or service companies, usually an outgrowth of existing manufacturers’ rep agencies, is their reliance on store associates to physically move the product. “The new team,” says DiGioacchino, “will be trained and certified to handle machinery in the stores, moving skids or palettes on lift trucks when needed.” This, Digioacchino adds, is important to his own mantra of “speed to market.” Home Depot calls this a “huge efficiency.”
The vendors will still have an important role, he adds. Product knowledge, instructing associates about the products on the shelves, will still be their responsibility. However, keeping those shelves tidy and stocked won’t be. Special projects, such as resets, will also remain the purview of the vendors. “Resets are only four times a year. This is about weekly service in the stores.”
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