— Casual Living,
Atlanta-based The Home Depot is rolling out two new store formats — a supersize store and a mini-store,


according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Home Depot will open its biggest store ever, a 225,000-sq.-ft. outlet, in Union, N.J. Measuring almost as big as four football fields, the new superstore will be built on the site of an old Home Depot Expo Design Center.

“The superstore concept is a test,” said Mike LaFerle, vice president of real estate at Home Depot. “We’re trying to bring the best of both worlds from the Expo concept and a regular Home Depot under one roof.”

LaFerle also said Home Depot is still working out details of the product mix at the store, which is set to open in April or May of next year. Current plans call for an expanded appliance showroom and a specialty store that may focus on home electronics. If successful, the superstore concept could roll out to the top 50 markets across the country, LaFerle said.

Home Depot also plans to unveil a small-store format in California, which will measure about half the size of a typical Home Depot. The smaller stores, which will range from 35,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet, are designed to offer an intimate neighborhood hardware store setting and will be geared toward small markets such as vacation areas that can’t support a full-size store.

Home Depot has tried a neighborhood hardware store format before in the form of Villager’s Hardware, which it tested in New Jersey. The stores carried products such as gifts and tableware along with tools and paint. However, the company’s new small-store format will function more like a mini-version of its warehouse stores.