OTHER NEWS - May 12, 1992

Exporting Home Depot: Home Depot Inc., the rapidly growing chain of home improvement warehouse stores, intends to open retail outlets abroad in five to seven years. Company President Arthur Blank, at a reception in the firm’s Atlanta headquarters with former President Jimmy Carter and former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, said Home Depot will decide which countries to target for new stores within 18 months. Carter introduced Blank to Gorbachev as “the man who’s going to open Home Depots in the Soviet Union.” Home Depot, founded in 1978 by Atlanta businessman Bernard Marcus, had 174 warehouse-style stores in 34 cities in 15 states at the beginning of this year.