Home Depot, Lowe’s Ready for Pros’ Shrinking Project Sizes

Home improvement retail giants The Home Depot and Lowe’s Companies are anticipating their professional customers (Pros) to continue working through elevated project backlogs this year, although the companies speculate the size of those projects is getting smaller.   Lumber deflation and unfavorable weather conditions across the United States were key drivers that led both home improvement retailers to report a sales decline of around 4% each in the first quarter of 2023. Pro customer sales, which largely go to the contractor market, were disproportionately impacted by these factors at both…