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This story left out a lot of details. I have to shop at home depot quite often for our business and have grown to know the management there. They were given reasons on why they are not supposed to sell to government people after they made repeated calls to corporate headquaters and spoke to some of the management there. The Government was doing large amounts of business with them, and was assuming regulatory powers of them. Even though Home Depot never signed the proper paperwork, by accepting money from the government for government use, they left themselves vulnerable to types of "Good Citizen in Standing" rules that those who do business with the government must follow, on contracts and bids, etc. They are currently involved in a lawsuit in which the government is using, as part of its claim, that Home Depot violated some of the regs that busines's who work with or do business with the government must follow. Despite there having been no written and signed agreement. This left Home Depot open to a lot of government rules and regs that would not normally apply. Long story short, they would have run themselves as if they were a government agency or risk sanctions or exposed liability. It is NOT A DON'T ASK DON'T TELL POLICY. Employees many not sell if they reasonably believe that the product is for government use, this only applies to the Federal government, not state or local. The lawyers at home depot are drafting up procedures, and will eventually seek to engage the lawyers at either GAO or the Justice department, if something satisfactory is not worked out, then Home Depot will contine to discriminate against any and all federal agencies. By the way, Home Depot is not the only company who refuses to do business with the government, there are supposedly several others.

That sounds about right.

That explains a lot, thanks for posting it. I presume that means that if you're wearing a military uniform, they're going to have to assume that whatever you're buying is for government use?