I like the idea of a public campaign against a company for dodging EEO laws, waving the flag all the way.....
> St. Louis Post-Dispatch
> Home Depot stops doing business with federal government
> This story was published in Business on Sunday, June 16, 2002.
>
> By Andrew Schneider
> Of The Post-Dispatch
>
> * Company document suggests that home-improvement chain might not want
> to fall under certain laws
>
> 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 at post-dispatch.com\Phone:
> 314-340-8101
>
>
>
>
Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html