BIGresearch February Retail Ratings: Home Depot Maintains Lead, Lowe's Gaining Ground in Home Improvement Sector

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwire - March 11, 2009) - 31.5% of consumers head to Home Depot most often for their home improvement needs, according to the February 09 Retail Ratings Report from BIGresearch (http://www.bigresearch.com). Lowe's follows in second place with 25.8% of the consumer share and Walmart (5.6%) takes third.

Home Depot's share increased one and a half points among all adults from February 08 (30%), resulting in a positive Consumer Equity Index™ (CEI)* of 104.93. It seems their biggest rival, Lowe's, has made gains in consumer share as well (23.7% in February 08), with a CEI of 108.78. Walmart's overall share is flat from last year (5.5%), giving the discount giant a CEI of 100.53. (*CEI measures growth in share of customer preference year-over-year. An index of 100 is flat, while an index of 105 indicates 5% growth.)

Home Depot saw a relatively substantial increase in consumer preference share among men (31.8% v. 27.9% last year), with a CEI of 114.17. Lowe's took the second spot with 25.2% of share (up from 24% last year), resulting in a CEI of 105.09. Although their overall share is small, Menards (3.7%) and ACE Hardware (2.8%), both saw growth year-over-year with CEIs of 128.79 and 131.42, respectively.

"Although Home Depot generally maintains a strong lead across gender and income segments, there is a bright spot for Lowe's when it comes to the 90 day outlook," said Pam Goodfellow, Senior Analyst at BIGresearch. "38.2% of consumers planning to spend more on home improvement purchases over the next three months shop at Lowe's most often, compared to 35.7% who head to Home Depot."

BIGresearch's Retail Ratings Reports (RRR) are available monthly for 12 major merchandise categories. They are developed from BIGresearch's monthly Consumer Intentions & Actions (CIA) Survey of over 8,000 online interviews. For a sample of the February report for Home Improvement (Adults 18+ and Men), please click the following link: http://info.bigresearch.com/.

About BIGresearch

BIGresearch is a consumer intelligence firm providing analysis of behavior in areas of products and services, retail, financial services, automotive and media. BIGresearch conducts the monthly Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey (CIA) of 8,000+ respondents and the semi-annual Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM) of 15,000+ respondents. More information is available at http://www.bigresearch.com.

Contact Information: Chrissy Wissinger BIGresearch 450 West Wilson Bridge Road Suite 370 Worthington, Ohio 43085 (614) 846-0146