Home Depot shoppers shift to smaller, practical projects as budgets tighten
Homeowners are still coming in, but more often for fixes than overhauls. That pushes associates toward tighter scopes, cheaper swaps, and stronger attachment sales.
The basket is getting smaller, and that changes the conversation on the floor
The customer walking into Home Depot is still spending, but the cart is getting smaller. HIRI’s latest homeowner activity read says only 40% of homeowners completed a project in the first quarter of 2026, down from 44% a year earlier, and activity fell to its lowest point in five quarters. That is not a collapse in demand. It is a shift toward more selective, practical jobs that change how associates should sell every aisle, from paint to plumbing to hardware.
The sharpest difference is between the big dream project and the work that keeps a house functioning. Homeowners are pulling back from multi-phase renovations and discretionary remodels, but maintenance and repair have held up better. That means the shopper who is shelving a kitchen overhaul still needs help with a leak, a paint touch-up, weatherproofing, or a replacement part that gets the house back in order. The real opportunity is not in convincing every customer to buy more. It is in helping them define a smaller, affordable project that they can finish.
What the floor is hearing now
The new customer conversation is less about transformation and more about triage. Shoppers are asking how to stretch a project, phase the work, or swap down in price without giving up the result they actually need. That puts a premium on associates who can translate a vague idea into a practical shopping list and keep the customer from overbuying.
For department leads, that matters because the best service move is often the most restrained one. If the budget is tight, the associate who narrows the scope, suggests a lower-cost substitute, or points out what can wait is more valuable than the one who pushes the biggest ticket. In this market, clear scoping is a sales skill.
Where the demand is holding up
The categories tied to repair and maintenance should be doing the heaviest lifting right now. Leak fixes, paint touch-ups, weatherproofing, and hardware replacements all fit the kind of defined outcome HIRI describes, and they are the kinds of jobs customers can plan and complete in one trip. Smaller upgrades also matter because they let a homeowner improve function or appearance without taking on a full remodel.
That changes which departments feel the momentum. Plumbing, paint, hardware, and weatherization are likely to see more purposeful traffic than the big discretionary remodel aisles. Associates who know the difference between a temporary fix and a durable one, or between a cheap substitute and a better value, will be the ones turning cautious shoppers into completed baskets.
Why attachment sales still matter
Smaller projects do not mean weaker selling. They often mean more precise selling. A customer buying a faucet repair may also need sealant, a wrench, a new supply line, or a spare part. Someone patching up a room may need prep materials, rollers, tape, caulk, and a lower-cost finish option that keeps the work on budget.
That is where attachment sales become more important, not less. The goal is not to stack unrelated products into the cart. It is to make sure the customer leaves with the essentials that prevent a second trip, a stalled job, or a return because something was forgotten. In a tighter spending environment, the associate who can bundle the right supporting items without pushing the customer past budget is doing exactly the job the floor needs.
The company picture matches what associates are seeing
Home Depot’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 results line up with that same pattern. The company reported sales of $41.8 billion, up 4.8% from a year earlier, while comparable sales rose 0.6% overall and 0.4% in the U.S. Net earnings came in at $3.3 billion, or $3.30 per diluted share, down from $3.4 billion, or $3.45 per diluted share, a year earlier. Ted Decker said underlying demand was “relatively similar” to fiscal 2025 even as consumer uncertainty and housing affordability pressure increased.
That is the kind of quarter that tells store leaders to stay disciplined. The business is not shrinking across the board, but it is not being pulled forward by a broad remodel cycle either. Home Depot reaffirmed fiscal 2026 guidance for total sales growth of about 2.5% to 4.5% and comparable sales growth of roughly flat to 2.0%, which suggests management is still planning for a cautious customer.
Pro is helping offset DIY weakness
One important wrinkle is that Home Depot said Pro customers outperformed DIY in the quarter. Big-ticket comparable transactions, defined as purchases over $1,000, rose 0.8%, even though larger discretionary projects remained under pressure. That is a sign that the store is serving two different modes at once: cautious homeowners trimming projects down, and professionals still moving product through the building.
For associates, that means speed and product confidence matter just as much as ever. The pro customer often knows exactly what is needed, while the DIY customer may need help figuring out how to cut scope without cutting quality. Both require accuracy, but the selling style is different. The shared skill is knowing the right product, the right substitute, and the right add-on.
What the outlook says about the year ahead
Home Depot was already bracing for a muted market before the quarter landed. In December 2025, the company said it expected the home improvement market to range between -1% and +1% in fiscal 2026, and it laid out a strategy centered on core and culture, a frictionless interconnected experience, and winning the pro. The company ended the quarter with 2,361 retail stores and more than 1,280 SRS locations across North America and the Caribbean, which gives it scale, but scale only works if the customer mix is read correctly on the floor.
The bigger takeaway is simple: the demand is still there, but it has become more practical. Homeowners are not disappearing from the aisles, they are arriving with tighter budgets, clearer goals, and less appetite for overbuilt projects. The stores that win this moment will be the ones where associates know how to shrink a project without shrinking the value of the sale.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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