- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- McIver called Home Depot's actions "puzzling."
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- "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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- Andrew Schneider aschneider@post-dispatch.com
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- http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stori
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