Format Watch: Homebase And Home Depot In Las Vegas

Home Channel News, May 3, 1999

HomeBase on South Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas features displays and signs that help organize its pine and fastener offerings.

A display in HomeBase's lumber department, provided by Portland, Ore.-based Precision Lumber Co., features a wooden sign that reads "Ponderosa Pine Select Boards, soft-textured, furniture quality."

Below the sign are several partitions with 6-foot-high boards in various widths. A smaller sign below these boards, labeled "Craft Center," sits above a set of 42 partitions with 18-inch-high boards in various widths. Occupying the right-hand side of the display are several 8-foothigh boards in various widths.

In the center of the fastener aisle, a 7-foot-tall display, supplied by VSI Fasteners, features 360 drawers of "hard-to-find" products, such as rings, clamps, suction cups, spacers, plugs and washers.

On the racks all along the aisle, color-coded vertical signs correspond to matching-colored boxes of such items as hooks and eyes, peg hooks, nails and tacks.

Home Depot on South Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas is one of the stores where Home Depot is testing its Pro Desk and expanding product offerings for contractors. The retailer began testing these features last year at its Las Vegas and Austin, Texas, locations.

The Pro Desk at the South Rainbow Boulevard store features six computers where staff members input order information, a separate contractor checkout and many impulse items for contractors such as masking tape and cable ties. Copies of Home Depot's Pro Book, which lists more than 15,000 products, are available at the desk. Throughout the store, end-caps display photos of Pro Desk staff members, with lists of products available at the Pro Desk.

Each of the Pro Desks at Depot's four Las Vegas stores is staffed by 12 people, including staff members who work the desk, staff members who load materials, and one outside salesperson. The Pro Desk hours are 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and closed on Sunday.