Item 8.01. Other Events. On February 3, 2021, W.W. Grainger, Inc. (the "Company") announced a change to its reportable segments to align with its go-to-market strategies and bifurcated business models (high-touch solutions and endless assortment). Effective January 1, 2021, the Company's reportable segments are comprised of the following:

•High-Touch Solutions North America (N.A.) - the Company's high-touch solutions businesses provide value-added MRO solutions that are rooted in deep product knowledge and customer expertise. This segment includes the Grainger-branded businesses in the United States of America (U.S.), Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

•Endless Assortment - the Company's endless assortment businesses provide a simple, transparent and streamlined experience for customers to shop millions of products. This segment includes the Company's Zoro and MonotaRO online businesses which operate predominately in the U.S. and Japan.

The Company will classify its remaining international high-touch solutions businesses as "Other" to reconcile to consolidated results. Consistent with current reporting, assets not attributable to a reportable segment are included in "Other current and non-current assets."

Also, effective January 1, 2021, the Company updated its reporting and accounting policies for corporate cost and intersegment sales transactions as follows:

•Corporate costs, some of which were previously included in "Unallocated expenses", are now fully allocated to each reportable segment based on benefits received.

•Intersegment sales transactions, which are sales between Grainger businesses presented in separate reportable segments and were previously included in segment-level "Net Sales" and "Gross Profit", are now eliminated within the segment to present only the impact of third-party sales and respective gross profit. Service fees for intersegment sales, which were previously included in segment-level "Gross Profit" as markup, are now presented as part of segment selling, general and administrative expense.

The Company is issuing this Current Report on Form 8-K in order to provide investors with segment summary historical financial information and segment historical data that is consistent with its new reportable segment structure and reflective of the changes to accounting policies as described above. The schedules in Exhibit 99.1 filed with this Current Report on Form 8-K provide recast unaudited summary financial information and other data according to the new reporting segments for the previously reported years ended December 31, 2018 through December 31, 2020, and the previously reported quarters in the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2020.

All summary financial information on a prospective basis will be presented under the new reportable segments beginning with the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2021.

The information included in this Form 8-K in no way amends or restates the Company's previously reported consolidated financial statements for any period and is presented for information purposes only. It does not change the Company's previously reported total assets, liabilities or shareholders' equity or its reported net income or earnings per share, nor does it reflect any subsequent information or events, other than as required to reflect the change in reporting segments as described above. This information should be read in conjunction with the Company's previously filed reports.

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Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.



(d) Exhibits.
Exhibit No.    Description of Exhibit
  99.1         Recast Segment Information of W.W. Grainger, Inc.
104            Cover Page Interactive Data File. The cover page XBRL tags are
               embedded within the inline XBRL document (contained in Exhibit 101).

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