The Home Depot Inc., based in Atlanta, has 33 stores in the area affected by the hurricane. Those stores have seen brisk sales of plywood, generators, building materials and lumber.

"We have pictures of stores where people are standing in line out the door into the parking lot," Carol Tome, Home Depot's chief financial officer, said Tuesday [ed. with tongue out, salivating, cartoon dollar signs in eyes].
...
Neither chain [ed. Lowes too was discussed] would give sales figures or say exactly how much profit they expect to generate at stores in the path of the hurricane. Tome did say some Home Depot stores in the region have seen as much as a "fivefold increase in one day" in sales.
...
Following devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Home Depot posted one of its best sales years on record. Tome said that year the company had a 15 percent jump in sales at stores open at least a year, though she noted Home Depot was much smaller at the time with less than 500 stores.

- posted by Cynthia @ 3:18 PM | | | Link |