Home Depot SEC Filings Reveal Three-Year Slide in Appliance Sales

Three years running, appliance sales at Home Depot have shrunk as a share of the company's total business: 9.1% of net sales in 2023, 8.8% in 2024, 8.5% in 2025. That steady erosion, documented in the company's 10-K filing with the SEC, is the category signal that should be driving coaching conversations in every appliance department this quarter.

The decline is not about customers losing interest in appliances. It is about timing. Housing turnover has remained at historical lows since 2023, draining the pipeline of move-in shoppers who would typically need a full appliance suite. CEO Ted Decker said it plainly on the Q4 earnings call: "Our customers are telling us that they're not investing certainly in large projects, and that has everything to do with consumer confidence and sentiment, [the] jobs picture, overall price levels, and affordability in the economy." Q4 net earnings fell 13% to $2.6 billion, and the company projects the overall home improvement market to land somewhere between down 1% and up 1% in fiscal 2026.

The on-floor reality of that macro picture is a customer who walks the appliance aisle, stops at a refrigerator, and stalls. The coaching response for associates is a quick pivot: identify the trade-down model with comparable cubic footage and a lower price point, and get there before the customer starts doing math in their head about waiting until spring.

The bigger opportunity may already be in other departments. Home Depot's own sales data shows customers who are not buying new appliances are instead spending on repair and maintenance categories, specifically plumbing and electrical. That shift in the shopping basket tells a story: a dishwasher that is leaking is not getting replaced, it is getting a new supply line. A range hood that is underperforming is getting a filter swap. Managers should be watching plumbing and electrical volume alongside appliance comps each week. When one is up and the other is flat, that is the customer showing where confidence sits right now.

For service scores, the financing conversation is the sharpest tool when customers are price-sensitive. Home Depot's consumer credit and project loan products let associates reframe a $1,400 range as a monthly payment rather than a lump sum. Bundled installation is worth mentioning in the same breath; it removes the logistical friction that gives a hesitating customer an excuse to leave empty-handed. Big-ticket transactions of $1,000 or more were actually up 1.3% in Q4 FY2025, which confirms the appetite exists. The category trend in appliances does not have to become the store-level result.

One more number worth posting in the break room: tenure with hourly associates reached its highest level since 2017 in fiscal 2025. Experienced Orange Aprons who know product specs, financing options, and repair alternatives are the store's strongest hedge against a category headwind that, by Decker's own read, is not reversing quickly.