Who Was Pat Farrah at Home Depot?
Ben Gilbert says Pat Farrah was the merchandiser Home Depot was missing, so the founders hired him instead of buying his store. While Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were still in Los Angeles, they found HomeCo, a hardware warehouse someone had already opened after seeing Price Club. It was about 130,000 square feet, larger than the 60,000-foot stores Home Depot would open, with goods stacked high and priced below what shoppers were used to. Bernie and Arthur called Ken Langone and tried to buy it.
The purchase died in due diligence. The crowds were real, but Pat was not paying suppliers and the store was headed for bankruptcy. Bernie still wanted him on the team. After the bankruptcy, Pat would join as a fourth co-founder and run merchandising, not the books. Bernie was the retailer, Arthur ran finance and operations, Ken found the money, and Pat was the person who could stack goods high and make a store feel like a buying frenzy.
