FAR LEFT: Chris Doyle shops at a Target store in Omaha, Neb.

AP / Nati Harnik

Three big-name national retailers — Home Depot Inc., Target Corp. and Staples Inc. — yesterday reported weak second-quarter sales and profits as consumers cut back on purchases of clothing, home goods and supplies in a slumping economy:

•Home Depot, the nation’s largest home-improvement retailer, said net income fell 24 percent to $1.2 billion, or 71 cents a share, from $1.59 billion, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier. Sales fell 5.4 percent to $21 billion from $22.2 billion in the year-ago period. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, fell 7.9 percent.

•Target Corp., the second-largest U.S. discount retailer, said net income declined 8 percent to $634 million, or 82 cents a share, but beat analysts’ estimates by 6 cents a share because the company reined in costs. Sales at stores open more than a year dropped for the second quarter in a row, signaling that Target isn’t keeping pace with Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

•Staples warned that its second-quarter results, excluding its acquisition of Corporate Express, would be weaker than anticipated. The office supply company said revenue rose about 3 percent and earnings per share fell about 15 percent in the quarter, compared with a year ago. At the end of the first quarter, Staples executives predicted that earnings per share would be flat in the second quarter.

“The question is when will it end,” said David Abella, a portfolio manager at Rochdale Investment Management. “It’s hard to say because the underlying macroeconomics story still looks pretty bleak.”

Home Depot’s chairman and chief executive officer, Frank Blake, said, “We continue to see pressure on our market and the consumer, generally,”

Despite the weak economic climate, he noted that the company saw improved execution in its merchandising and operations initiatives during the past quarter.

Atlanta-based Home Depot’s business has been hurt by the sluggish economy and the housing slowdown that’s also battering its competitors such as Lowe’s Cos. Inc.

Lowe’s reported Monday that its second-quarter profit fell nearly 8 percent, but managed to top Wall Street expectations as the nation’s second-biggest home-improvement retailer benefited from customers’ efforts to repair last year’s drought-stricken gardens, from tighter expense controls and better-than-predicted sales. Lowe’s offered a weaker-than-expected outlook for the third quarter, but raised its guidance for the full year.

To boost business, Home Depot has been trying to offer more locally relevant products while focusing on the do-it-yourself customer and the small-repair and remodeling professional. About 70 percent of Home Depot’s sales come from homeowners, while the rest come from professionals such as contractors, according to the company.

Amid so much economic uncertainty, Home Depot said that it expects earnings per share from continuing operations to decline by 24 percent for the year. Home Depot had said in May that it felt “more comfortable” that it would meet the low end of its full-year guidance for a drop of 19 to 24 percent in earnings per share, but did not elaborate. The earnings-per-share guidance does not include the company’s charge related to the closing of 15 stores and its reduction of 50 stores from its future expansion plan, the company said.

“Right now they’re just having to buckle down and figure out how to compete against Wal-Mart in a slowing market,” said Abella, the portfolio manager.

At Target, customers coping with higher food and fuel prices, rising joblessness and the worst housing market since the Great Depression have curtailed purchases of non-necessities while seeking bargains on what they do buy. That’s benefited Wal-Mart, its Sam’s Club warehouse unit and Costco Wholesale Corp., the largest U.S. warehouse club by sales.

Target’s profit on goods sold shrank as customers bought more groceries and other staples, which have lower mark-ups than clothing and home goods. Gross profit, or the percentage of sales left after subtracting the cost of goods sold, narrowed to 31.17 from 31.56.

The slowdown also has pressured Target’s credit-card holders, resulting in more late and missed payments.

Credit-card profit in the quarter fell 65 percent to $74 million. Bad-debt expense more than doubled, to $256 million from $95 million.

Target completed the $3.6-billion sale of 47 percent of its credit-card loans to JPMorgan Chase & Co. in May.

Target has lost customers to Wal-Mart during the slowdown, Abella said.

“You don’t think to go there if you think, ‘Hey, I really need to save money this month.’ Wal-Mart comes to mind first,” he said.

Wal-Mart said last week second-quarter profit climbed 17 percent to $3.45 billion, or 87 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimates.

Staples, based in Framingham, Mass., said sales in North America were hurt by lower customer traffic and smaller orders, leading to a revenue drop of 1 percent as comparable store sales fell about 7 percent over 2007. International sales rose 17 percent, with a big boost from a weak dollar, and rose 6 percent when measured in local currency.

Staples will report final results on Sept. 3 for the quarter ended Aug. 2. Those results will include Corporate Express results for July, when Staples completed its $2.7-billion acquisition of the Dutch office-supply company.

The acquisition lets Staples expand its delivery business in North America, as well as enter new international markets. Staples said yesterday that its integration of Corporate Express is well under way, and its three-year plan includes cost savings of $200 million to $300 million in areas such as purchasing, overhead costs and logistics network efficiencies.

The company predicts the integration and restructuring to cost between $30 million and $40 million in the second half of this fiscal year, and $50 million to $70 million next year.

Excluding Corporate Express, Staples said it expected low single-digit sales growth and flat earnings per share for this year. Analysts had predicted earnings per share to rise about 5 percent to $1.49 for the year on sales growth of about 7.5 percent.