Posted on 06/16/2002 11:29:08 AM PDT by John Jorsett
Edited on 05/11/2004 5:33:47 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Home Depot Inc., the nation's largest hardware and home-improvement chain, has told its 1,400 stores not to do business with the U.S. government or its representatives.
The Post-Dispatch checked with managers at 38 stores in 11 states. All but two said they had received instructions from Home Depot's corporate headquarters this month not to take government credit cards, purchase orders or even cash if the items are being used by the federal government.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
The government tried to close down many VA hospitals and subsidize the treatment at regular hospital while upgrading those still remaining. There was a swell of opposition as the "fear-mongers" declared the republicans were trying to shutdown the VA hospitals (implying LESS service) to the veterans. So, in the midst of it all, the program was dropped.
Please re-read the paragraph below.
One Home Depot associate at a store in San Diego said, "It feels weird telling some kid in uniform that I can't sell him 10 gallons of paint because we don't do business with the government."
Sure sound like they are going to not sell to military personel.
Didn't Home Depot align itself with PFLAG about a year or so ago?
a.cricket
Great, so the feds can hassle and/or prosecute you if you don't enact a formal affirmitive action program in your small business. What a load of crap! Government meddling in business hiring sucks and they shouldn't have anything to do with it, especially with the screwey ways that the feds do their hiring. They'll not hire the guy with the best qualifications and hire a total lunkhead because he fits the racial profile that they want for some diversity program. But they're competent to micro-manage your hiring practices (NOT!).
What I did twenty years ago and for the same reasons.
Mega-bump!!
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HEY ANAL if you dont have something more constructive to say shut your yap and sit down
Hope you have a nice life in your correctly spelled perfect world .... i hope if you are married that you and your get all the best out of life all the love you need and want and that your children are many and a blessing to you but leave your correction to just that you and yours im 42 and if i need corrected ill do it myself my father lives a couple miles away with my mom he hasnt corrected me since i was 18 and joined the navy if you feel you need to correct someone go somewhere else and do it If you feel you just cant help yourself and hafta get in that last word go for it because i wont respond Its a shame is'nt it this all started over a freeking >>>>>.<<<<< |
an indoor/outdoor submersible pump that would come on if it got wet
wall anchors for 1-inch #8 screws (for plaster)
and 25 watt reflective lamps for some mini-spots.
I don't go there for the window shades and stencils. though I confess to a couple of stencil purchases at Lowes.
and we welcome all government employees to continue to 'support your own'.
But please explain then why you need half of my income to pay for your income so you can 'support your own'. Please feel as free as you need to be to support your own, but do it on your own dime.
The requirements in the back of all allow them access at demand to see your books, for any reason. In otherwords if you're going to agree to business with the government, they assign themselves the right to anything they want.
Don't get me started on OSHA and EPA. Did you know that you can not dispose of an empty spray paint can without puncturing it first and draing any possible fluild. That fluid must be disposed of at an EPA approved company. You must have reciept. Note $2500 fine for each occurance,,,,,
I'll send the rest of my paychecks to Home Depot. They are right.
Okay, it's time I fess up--I work for HD. The cash thing is fairly easy to understand--HD doesn't accept tax exempt status on government, business, or church transactions in cash--they have to be either check (in the agency, business or church name) or credit. So the cash angle is simple--cash can't get tax exempt status, so the feds won't use cash anyway.
I understand everyone's comments on here--it's hard to find help in my store, too (and Tennessee Bob, FYI, I am familiar with the Oak Ridge store, and I don't believe it's doing very much with its Pro Sales anyway, which would encompass (or would have) the government accounts).
It was rolled out to us as too many bureaucratic hoops to jump through (and the fact that just one employee not following the Fed rules would result in penalties throughout the company).
Insofar as the equal rights for gays in the workplace, I, personally, don't have a problem with equal rights--I don't think anyone should be held back because of their sexual orientation--I just don't think they should be given preferential treatment.
And yes, everyone at my store was incredibly upset with the PFlag thing last year.
I sent it back after a pass through our shredder, with a note saying, in effect, "You want to buy our stuff, you send a check like everybody else. If not, go pound sand and stuff your forms."
Always, everywhere, at every opportunity - tell Big Stupid Government to jam it.
I can think of a few reasons :
1)The federal government was putting in orders for 3,000 light bulbs or whatever, and perhaps Home Depot was not equipped to handle something like that logistics wise
2)The government business was impacting their other business in some way
3)The government was purchasing things in bulk that perhaps HD was selling at a loss to attract customers, or that impacted many private customers.
4)Too many restrictions on HD from the government.
I don't know why people are bashing HD without knowing the story. If the story is there are too many restrictions on HD to sell to the government (which is what it sounds like), FReepers would be cheering HD on. If the story is that the government business was impacting other areas, FReepers would understand. They should think about how many times they buy stuff on sale and are restricted to 1 or 2 of the items, perhaps the same thing is happening here, and HD doesn't like the government cleaning them out when they really are oriented towards people like you and I.
If its unconstitutional, these fedgov workers are not friends of the Country--they are enemies of the Constitutional Republic just as sure as all socialists are.
I'll certainly be looking forward to hearing more about Home Depot's decision. So far, I say bravo. Why don't we have a lot of principled businesses who finally say, we're tired of all the fedgov rules and regs that add so much to the costs of business that its choking our nation, and that they refuse to sell to fedgov until such time as the fedgov honors the Constitution.
You have got to be kidding me. Our "war" (which I can't really say is a war now since we seem to be in that stage of nation-building that comes after a war.)does not have anything to do with HD or you or I for that matter.
If HD doesn't want to sell to the government, it's their right. This is a free country. I saw nowhere in there that they were targeting any one particular facet of the government, so don't make it out to be against the military.
If you had a business, I'm sure you would prefer to have the right to refuse service to certain customers. Perhaps the paperwork that revolves around the goverment was costing too much time/resources for HD.
Who owns Home Depot? Do you have a 401K with a tracking fund? Probably > 50% of the people on this thread own some HD one way or another.
It is funny to see conservatives bash HD for attempting to avoid some hogwash leftist feel good legal traps.
The simple reason is risk vs return. HD has figured out that the potential cost (risk) of some government lawsuits is greater than the gain from selling to the Feds. It is that simple.
I see another note on this thread how HD doesn't hire women for the floor jobs. Typcial knee jerk discrimination - of course they hire fewer women - their goal is to hire experienced contractors. What percentage of contractors are women that you know - personally? If you don't have an answer, pick up a phone book and call ten at random.
This is not un-patriotic on their part. They have a fiduciary duty to do the best they can for their shareholders. My opinion is that they are doing this.
The real question is why should a nice american company have to avoid the US feds to do the best it can for its owners?
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