Home Depot Layoffs: Shoppers May Now Notice Surprising Changes

Summary

Home Depot is consolidating distribution centers, cutting at least 108 jobs in La Vergne and trimming other hubs to streamline post-pandemic logistics.
The company is pivoting toward professional contractors—acquiring GMS and SRS—to offset weaker DIY big-ticket demand while keeping local stores and deliveries intact.

If you’re like me, a Saturday morning trip to Home Depot is practically a ritual—grabbing a gallon of that perfect paint for the guest room, maybe some new lights, because who doesn’t love awesome lighting?

Lately, though, the orange-vested giant has been making some quiet moves behind the scenes that could ripple into our everyday errands. This fall, Home Depot’s supply-chain arm decided to consolidate a big distribution center in La Vergne, Tennessee, putting 108 people out of work come January 9, 2026.

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It’s not a store closing—your local aisle of power tools is safe—but it’s part of a larger shuffle that’s got homeowners and weekend warriors paying attention. An HD Supply spokesperson put it plainly: “HD Supply continues to improve its leading maintenance, repair and operations distribution business.

As part of that journey, we’ve made several strategic decisions around our network strategy and have made the decision to consolidate our La Vergne Distribution Center into another facility in La Vergne.”

Translation? They’re folding one warehouse into another nearby, hoping to run leaner while keeping trucks rolling to the same shelves we browse.

But There is A Small Pattern Building

This isn’t happening in a vacuum. Just days earlier, on October 26, Home Depot shuttered a smaller distribution hub in Mexico, Missouri, letting go of 61 workers.

And the day after that, logistics partner J.B. Hunt closed its operation inside a Home Depot center in Lithonia, Georgia—another 74 jobs gone.

Add in last year’s quiet hunt for tenants to sublease four mammoth warehouses (Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, California) and you start to see the pattern: the company is pruning a network it supersized during the pandemic.

Remember 2020? We were all trapped at home, suddenly noticing every scuff mark and squeaky cabinet. Home Depot rode that wave, pouring $1.2 billion into 150 new distribution points so paint and plywood could land on your doorstep the next day.

Now, with mortgage rates still hovering above 6%, a lot of us are hitting pause on the full kitchen gut-job.

It’s Not All Gloom and Doom

Home Depot’s own CFO, Richard McPhail, said it best on an August earnings call: “Our customers still tell us that the rate environment is giving them pause on larger remodeling projects that would typically require debt financing.”

The numbers back him up. Same-store foot traffic dipped 2.6% in the second quarter of 2025, even though sales ticked up a modest 1.4%.

Translation: we’re still buying, just not the big-ticket stuff.

The National Association of Realtors offered a sliver of hope in September—existing-home sales jumped 1.5% month-over-month, inventory climbed 1.3%, and the median price hit $415,200.

NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun called it “a five-year high” for inventory, adding that “home prices continue to rise in most parts of the country, further contributing to overall household wealth.”

Still, Home Depot isn’t just cutting—it’s pivoting hard toward the pros who keep building no matter the rates. In September they snapped up drywall-and-ceiling distributor GMS for $5.5 billion, folding it into last year’s $18.25 billion SRS buy.

CEO Ted Decker cheered the combo: “We want to serve the Pro across their entire project, and the combination of SRS and GMS will enable cross-selling synergies, strengthen our capabilities, and bring even more opportunities to grow with this important customer.”