Another Odd Thing About Home Depot
Has anyone noticed that it's not just Home Depot? It's actually The Home Depot. I think that's odd.

No one ever says, "Hey I'm going to The Home Depot." It's just 'Home Depot.' That 'the' is superfluous.

I mean, do they think they are the only place to get home improvement stuff? That's a little pretentious for a place where every customer in the store is wearing paint clothes or work clothes, as opposed to how one would dress if one was shopping at a clothing store or some other non-home improvement establishment. I usually shower and wear presentable clothes to go shopping, but for Home Depot I can work in the yard all day, discover I need a tool, and head over there to shop amongst the others customers who are there during the middle of a job, and consequently sweaty, dirty, covered in paint, and generally not looking their best. It's an entirely different shopping genre than say, shopping at The Galleria.

You won't find many other stores slipping a 'the' in front of their name, assuming they are the one and only place to find whatever products they sell. Some places do, like The Gap, or The Container Store. But it's just a little uppity to be 'the', if you ask me. It's not The Barnes and Noble, or The Bed, Bath, and Beyond, or The Pottery Barn, or The Mall.

Okay, so it is 'the' mall. But you get my point. Chain stores for the common man shouldn't be 'the'.

There are Home Depot stores everywhere. So which Home Depot is really 'the' Home Depot? It's not like there is only one. Naming it The Home Depot would imply to me that there is only one. Even IKEA is just IKEA, and there are only, like, two of those in the world. IKEA could get away with being The IKEA.

Of course, being The Home Depot does not diminish my love for the Depot. But I swear I am not going there today.

C.T.