Home Depot (HD) has made a couple of multi-billion dollar acquisitions recently.
The home improvement retailer bought two large-scale materials distribution and contractor-facing companies over the past year and a half.
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2025 and 2025 saw the following acquisitions:
March 2024: Bought SRS Distribution for $18.25 billion, its largest acquisition everJune 2025: Agreed to allow SRS Distribution to buy GMS Inc. for $4.3 billion.
“What’s attractive about that business is that Lowe’s really doesn’t compete there,” said Michael Baker, a managing director at investment firm D.A. Davidson.
But it’s not resting on its success anytime soon.
Home Depot is looking ahead for other ways to widen the gap between it and its competitors.
Home Depot focuses on Halloween
It may not even be August yet, but Home Depot is already thinking about ways to draw in customers for the busy fall shopping season.
On Tuesday, Home Depot said it would start selling its highly anticipated Halloween line, starting on August 4, 2025.
This marks its earliest launch yet.
The line will see the return of its viral 12-foot tall skeleton lawn ornament, affectionately named Skelly.
The launch includes other items, like:
Ultra Skelly, a 6.5-foot app-controlled Skeleton15-foot scarecrowColor-changing dragon8-foot animated lawn troll3.5-foot Bride of Chucky5-foot Sitting Skelly’s Dog 5-foot LED glowing Skelly’s Cat7-foot Skelly’s Dog
Home Depot sees instant success
Home Depot’s 12-foot Skelly is something of a status symbol among households across the U.S.
Between 2020 and 2023, Skelly has sold out within days or even hours at Home Depot stores and online.
The 12-foot skeleton was viral on social media, with customers posting their lawn setups on Instagram and TikTok, creating a frenzy of memes about the item.
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Some customers keep it up through other holidays, decorating Skelly for Christmas, the Fourth of July, and other decorative seasons.
It features light up LED eyes and a hollow ribcage that customers say is realistic without being too scary or graphic.
Skelly retails for $299, which is considered a value prospect compared to other giant Halloween decor items from other stores, like Costco, Lowe’s and Spirit Halloween.
Lowe’s, for example, sells a 12-foot animated Bone Collector halloween lawn ornament for $450.
Home Depot sells valuable items
Home Depot sells plenty of other valuable items year round.
While the retailer doesn’t break down its top most profitable items, the following categories are known winners for Home Depot:
Private label brands (such as Husky, Hampton Bay, and Lifeproof)Paint and accessoriesHoliday decorCeiling and lighting fixturesStorage bins and organizational accessoriesSmart home techBath hardware and fixtures
Though Home Depot has been targeting professionals and contractors with its recent acquisitions, the store still lends plenty of primary focus on weekend DIYers and small-scale customers.
