IP: Home Depot Stops Selling To The US Government

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Maybe if this is true , we should stop shopping at Home Depot


------ Forwarded Message
From: TruChaos () aol com
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2002 18:36:05 EDT
To: Dave () farber net
Subject: Home Depot Stops Selling To The US Government

Home Depot stops doing business with federal government
By Andrew Schneider
Of The Post-Dispatch
2002, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
06/16/2002 04:52 AM


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.

"Engaging in business practices with the federal government is not a
strategic focus of the Home Depot," company spokesman Tom Gray said. "The
Home Depot is not and does not plan to become a federal contractor or
subcontractor." 

When asked what the statement meant and what it had to do with purchases by
an FBI agent in St. Louis or an Environmental Protection Agency investigator
in Seattle or a supply sergeant for an Army Reserve unit in Ohio, Gray
declined to comment, other than to say it's an old policy.

But the store managers contacted said they received the policy within the
last couple of weeks.

Responding to an e-mail request for clarification, Gray said the refusal to
sell to the government was "a business decision based upon the company's
strategic direction."

The General Services Administration, the government's quartermaster, just
learned of the policy.

"I was contacted by the Department of Defense last week, and they said that
some of their people were stopped from making purchases at Home Depot,"
Susan McIver, director of the GSA's Services Acquisition Center, said
Friday. 

"Home Depot has not contacted us, so I've got no idea what their problem is.
We are checking with the other federal agencies to see what they are
encountering and then will call the company."

As of April, 384,520 government employees were using "GSA Smart Pay" cards
for purchases other than travel or fleet operations, McIver said. Congress
approved use of the cards to reduce paperwork and to streamline the paying
of merchants. 

"Use of the cards is mandatory for purchases under $2,500," she said, adding
that last year, $3.7 billion was charged to the cards, which are backed by
Visa and MasterCard.

McIver called Home Depot's actions "puzzling."

"This is the first company I've ever heard of establishing a policy of not
doing business with the federal government. I find it hard to understand,"
she said. 

She described a continuous stream of calls to her office each day from
businesses eager to sell to the government.

Most of Home Depot's managers interviewed by the Post-Dispatch shared the
confusion. All the managers contacted declined to be quoted, but most said
they didn't know what was behind the company's refusal to sell to the
federal government.

Some, especially those near military bases and large federal complexes, said
the policy would cost Home Depot a significant amount of money, but they
would make no estimates of how much.

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."

The notification that Home Depot sent from its Atlanta headquarters to its
stores offers little explanation of why the decision was made.

But the document, which was obtained by the Post-Dispatch, offers elaborate
detail on how the policy is supposed to be implemented:

- Under one scenario, a customer wants to buy 3,000 light bulbs and asks
that the product be delivered to a military base. "That transaction should
not be processed," the document says.

- Another scenario describes a person trying to purchase lumber and
presenting a purchase order listed to the GSA. "This transaction cannot be
processed," the document says.

OoA third scenario uses a customer who pays cash and asks Home Depot to
deliver the purchase to a federal address. The customer is told no, and he
asks to rent a Home Depot truck. "Since you are aware that the transaction
is for the federal government, you cannot process it," the document says.

If store personnel are questioned by customers, the document advises, they
should respond that "our focus is directed at do-it-yourselfers and private
contractors" and "this has always been our policy."

The notification has a section that says commercial credit-card customers
will receive a notice with their June bill that purchases could not be made
"that would cause the company to be covered by or responsible in any way for
compliance with" three federal laws or executive orders:

OoExecutive Order 11246 of 1965, which bans discrimination against any
employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex
or national origin.

- Section 503 and Section 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which
requires affirmative action and prohibits employment discrimination by
federal government contractors and subcontractors.

- The Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974, which
requires that anyone doing business worth $25,000 or more with the federal
government must take affirmative action to hire and to promote qualified
targeted veterans, including special disabled veterans, veterans of the
Vietnam era, and any other veterans who served on active duty during a war
or in a campaign or an expedition. It would apply to Gulf War veterans and
those fighting the war on terrorism.

"We are going to the agencies who issued those three laws they mentioned and
try to determine whether those laws would have some kind of impact on Home
Depot which might explain its actions," McIver said.

"This will impact many agencies who might have needs to go to Home Depot.
But they can get those needs met by going to other stores."

A spokesperson for Lowe's Cos., the nation's second-largest home improvement
chain, said that it still sells to the government and that it will continue
to do so. 

Home Depot might not want to sell to the government, but this month, it
reached agreement with the U.S. Labor Department to "recruit, screen and
refer" 40,000 job applicants to work in the company's new stores that are
being opened "every 47 hours."

Home Depot was founded in 1978. It operates in 49 states and overseas and
has a work force of 250,000 people. Last year, it had sales of $53.6
billion. 

Andrew Schneider:\E-mail: aschneider () post-dispatch com\Phone: 314-340-8101
    
Story Link 

STLtoday - business
<http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/Business/48207745A176
580A86256BDA00389D90?OpenDocument&Headline=Home%20Depot%20stops%20doing%20bu
siness%20with%20federal%20government>
    
    


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