Bernie Marcus, who came up with a revolutionary business idea in the late 1970s — create a do-it-yourself, big-box suburban outlet that would seem more warehouse than store — and, with a partner, turned it into the Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer — died Monday in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 95.

His death was announced on his Facebook page.

Marcus had just been fired as CEO of a California-based hardware chain in 1978 when he hit on the idea of a store — nothing fancy — that would appeal mainly to the weekend warrior doing repairs and making improvements around the house and yard. The formula was simple: Stock the shelves to the ceiling with a vast selection of every conceivable home-improvement product at discount prices, and hire knowledgeable salespeople to double as customer advisers.

He and his partner, Arthur Blank, a former colleague at the California chain, Handy Dan, launched Home Depot that year. Its first outlet was opened in Atlanta with the backing of Wall Street financier Ken Langone. Today, Home Depot boasts more than 2,300 stores across North America, with more than $150 billion in annual revenue.

Marcus oversaw the company’s explosive growth as CEO for its first 19 years and chair until 2002. Along the way he, Blank and Langone became billionaires; they also lined the pockets of legions of Home Depot employees who had received generous stock options.

“He was an inspiring visionary,” Blank, who succeeded Marcus as CEO in 1997, said in an interview for this obituary in 2013. “He was a retailer who was often able to see around corners that others couldn’t see.”

Challenged convention

Marcus’ Home Depot concept challenged conventional industry wisdom about a number of things, beginning with square footage. Competitors like Handy Dan operated stores no bigger than 35,000 square feet. But as he and Blank wrote, in “Built From Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew the Home Depot From Nothing to $30 Billion” (1999, with Bob Andelman), Marcus envisioned warehouse-style outlets of 55,000 to 75,000 square feet. He insisted on buying merchandise directly from manufacturers, eliminating the middlemen and, indeed, actual warehouses, so that, as the partners wrote, “we could give their profit back to our customers in price reductions.”

The founders projected annual sales of $7 million to $9 million per store, with profit margins of 29% to 31% — “unheard of in an industry that banked on profit margins of 42 to 47%,” they wrote. The anticipated high volume would offset the lower margins.

Langone arranged $2 million in financing for the first Home Depot outlet. As an investor in Handy Dan, he had gotten to know and admire Marcus when Marcus was the chain’s CEO. In 1978, Marcus and Blank were fired by Sanford C. Sigoloff, the CEO of Handy Dan’s parent company, Daylin, as part of a restructuring. A despondent Marcus contacted Langone with the news. At 49, he was out of work and depressed about his prospects.

“That’s the greatest news I ever heard,” Marcus recalled Langone telling him. “You have just been kicked in the ass with a golden horseshoe.” Having once discussed Marcus’ vision for a home improvement superstore, Langone suggested that day that they go into business together.

Discovering retail

Bernard Marcus was born in Newark, N.J., on May 12, 1929, to Sara and Joe Marcus, Jewish immigrants from Russia. His father was a cabinet maker, but the family struggled financially during the Great Depression. His mother, who had crippling rheumatoid arthritis, was nevertheless his main influence. In the book he and Blank wrote, Marcus said: “My mom taught me most of the beliefs I possess today, especially that you have only so much physical and mental energy. Don’t spend time replaying the past; it only keeps you from focusing on the future.”

Marcus earned money for college by working as a busboy at a Catskills hotel. During his final year at Rutgers University in New Jersey, he believed he had received a scholarship to Harvard Medical School. He was shocked when he was told he would need to come up with $10,000 in order to enter Harvard, which had a quota on Jews at its medical school.

In despair and unable to afford the tuition, Marcus quit college and spent a year in Florida. His mother persuaded him to return to Rutgers, where he earned a degree in pharmacy.

Building the chain

He joined the Handy Dan chain in 1968 and established an immediate rapport with Blank. Marcus was the outgoing visionary with comedic timing; Blank was the operations guru who made things work.

By 1972, Marcus was the company’s president and chair. That year he divorced his wife, Ruth (Schwartz) Marcus (who became Ruth Marcus Rados when she remarried). In 1973, he married Billi Morris. She survives him, as do a son, Frederick, from his first marriage; a stepson, Michael A. Morris; and seven grandchildren. His daughter, Susanne Marcus Collins, died in 2021.

As he built Home Depot into a retail juggernaut, Marcus made clear the underlying reason for his success.

“The key is not to make the sale. The key is to cultivate the customer,” he and Blank wrote in “Built From Scratch. “We teach our associates that if you can save a customer money, do it. We’re not looking to fleece the customer. Care for them today and they’ll be back tomorrow.”