Good for them. Uncle Sam doesn't need a frog pond anyway!

Yup, the people at Home Depot realize that if they sell stuff to the US, that money has to come from somewhere... Taxes! Good Move Home Depot.

So what? The buyers will just go across the street to Lowes.

Kind of a stupid decision to avoid a possible conflict with some regulations.

Can they really do that?

I mean, you may have on a uniform but you still might be buying it for your house and not a bomb....

Probably all those NSF checks.

Why's the Gov. wanting to buy from them ? Home Depot has hammers for $500 ?

I would have figured Home Depot would be too low-priced for the government to shop at anyway. Doesn't the government prefer to spend $25 apiece for nails and $35,000 for toilet seats???

This should have a hero tag. BUt on the other hand, if the gov is buying its tiolet seats from Home Depot, then they can't possible claim they paid $10,000 for it...

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."


What, they open a new store every 47 hours? JESUS POGO-STICKING CHRIST! DO THEY COME FROM PODS OR WHAT?
AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

*runs away screaming*

don't worry, Tony Stewart sucks anyway ---

Traitorous and seditious acts by Home Depot while we are still fighting the War On Terrorism.

Yank the CEO and Board members out and throw them in Camp X-Ray.

Hey, HOW DO I POST an image? Whenever I put the <IMG ...> tag in and enable HTML, fark eats the tag. Someone help, please? =)

-Berj

Good, they shouldn't be shopping there (on a government card) in the first place. It no different than if they were at 7-11 using a gov. card, or frickin' BurgerKing.

I fail to see why this is a bad thing? This is a GOOD thing.

Andorion:

You probably aren't doing it right.

It should look like
<img src="http://www.gaysex.com/~andorion/me.jpg">

Why doesn't the Government buy from that one line of stores that ran commercials with them bombing their competitors stores?

HQ was their name, right?

RK

the feds will buy a hammer for $500. Why not?

Maybe Home Depot has a problem with government officals raking in more than $1M per credit card on average -- I do too. Plus, if the government started to buy directly from HD, they'd probably force them to give discounts. This is hardly assinine.

Insane_idoru: Exactly. I don't know why Home Depot has done this, but you can bet that there is an intelligent reason for it.

I am getting more and more irritated at the morons who indiscrimately just put the tag on things without thinking about it for one second first.

I am beginning to develop the theory that every single submitter who ever puts the asinine tag on a story has just given in to the knee jerk and completely uneducated and thoughtless reaction to the story.

Ya see? This is what happens when you have a bad credit history--nobody wants to do business with you any more.

(clue: you know that six-trillion dollar "national debt" we keep hearing about? Know what a lot of it is? UNPAID BILLS! Bills written out without the funds to cover for them, the sort of thing that would earn you or me a big fat "ACCOUNT OVERDRAWN" notice from the bank if we tried it. If H-D let their own accounting department get that sloppy for decades on end, they'd be up sh*t creek mighty soon since their own suppliers would cut em off.)

What I want to know: does this restriction apply only to purchases going directly to the govt' offices? Or does this statement also inadvertantly screw over John Q. Federal Paperpusher, who just wanted to do some handyman work at home?

Not only will HD sell a hammer for $500, but they also stock $700 sickles... hey wait a minute...

I have to admit I'm mystified by all the people agreeing with this policy. the gov't has to and does buy alot of stuff from alot of places. If a soldier on a military base can spend $40 on materials to make a repair rather than $4000 going through channels, that's a GOOD thing. The gov't buys things through retailers all the time, now they'll just get them from a different one. I sure know if I was a H-D stockholder I'd be pissed at them turning away sales.

homedepotsucks.com is amusing.

If you do business with the US government, then you support terrorism.

Inmaniac: What tag is appropriate in this case?

I started thinking of all the spinoff arguments/discussions/flamewars from my above question, but I kept coming back to these two bigger questions: Should the government be allowed to buy product from Home Depot? Are the interests of taxpayers being met by shopping there (or anywhere else for that matter, like the evil "Walmart")?

Edsel: I've priced axe heads there, but how much do they charge for a bundle of sticks to go with it?

Inmaniac-

Before you criticize the -asinine- tag, why don't you come up with a reason why it isn't?


P.S. You being 'sure' there's an intelligent reason doesn't cut it.

Ishidan: I think a good chunk of that debt is money still owed to us from other countries, but kudos on bringing up the reason why I would be wary of doing business w/ the national gov't.
Maybe HD and the Fed are in some sort of Enron-esque insider trading fiasco, and this is the tip of the iceberg... did I read something about Americans becoming more and more conspiracy theory- oriented? Nawwwww.

I smell Scientology at the top echelon of Home Depot!

If you look at the bottom of the article, you'll see that they're not selling to the Gov't so they don't have to comply with all those pesky Government vendor regulations like not discriminating against people in their hiring practices... God knows that would be annoying to have to do.

Maybe they don't want the federal government's blood money.

Interesting. I either love Home Depot now, or hate them, depending on their reasoning. :)


If, Home depot refuses to deal with the government because they will not allow themselves to be subjected to racist "affirmative action" laws which require priority advancement and hiring be given to anyone who isn't white, then god bless them. Racism is still racism when it's turned around. Any company willing to stand up to government sanctioned and imposed racism is very cool. My current employer does millions in business with the federal government, and have been forced to form an entire department which does nothing but travel the country to find non-white people to hire and bring to town to meet quotas, even though plenty of people in town are qualified, but not the proper race for the government requirements.

Noone who pretends to be against racism can support quotas and "affirmative action" without being struck dead by the gods of doublespeak.


If it's some other reason, then who knows wtf is going on.

Hehe, Home Depot. I was up in Portland for Queer Pride yesterday, and the people at the gates had Homo Depot aprons. It was funny.

Also, kittens.

Ishidan: That was beautifully obscure! Although a bundle of rods would be more fascionable..

Screw it! Uncle Sam ain't allowed to buy any of my old crap from my garage sale this week-end!!!

Johneee-

Of course, those rules have been in place for many years and only apply to businesses under contract with the gov't, not some guy buying a freaking lightbulb. Besides, the Bush Regime recently suspended rules forbidding gov't contracts with companies found guilty of breaking the law, so even -that- argument doesn't fly. Like I said, I'm mystified.

Edseldave-
LOL!!!1

Yossarian: don't you pay taxes? Aren't you concerned that doing that is helping fund the US War more than Home Depot products? Aren't you a big hypocrite if you keep funding the War on Terrorism with your taxes?

fb, what is it when you WORKED for the Gov. ?? Weren't ya in the armed services ???

Dear god - Fb - armed....

I worked for the State of Illinois about 30 years ago. I remember that many suppliers simply refused to take a purchase order from the State because they took about 6 months to pay, sometimes longer. (However, those suppliers still took cash.)

It made my job very difficult because I was constantly trying to get cash advances for purchases.

I just wonder if there isn't a financial reason like this behind HD's decision. HD runs on a pretty slim margin, if they have to hunt down their collectibles then that margin in gone very quickly.

I'm in the "this is a good thing" camp. According to the article, HD wants to run its business by its rules and not the fed's, which it would have to do if it did business with them. So it's telling them to stick their business where the sun don't shine.

I read a comment elsewhere on this story from a guy who had a government agency wanting to buy his unique product. He got a 16-page "statement of qualifications" form to fill out. He ran it through a shredder and sent it back with a note that said in effect, "send a check or pound sand." He got the check.

testing



I didn't have the quotes around the URL, before =) Maybe that was it?

-Berj

Edseldave: haha you started it with the "Hammer and sickle" reference!

but, "bundle of rods would be more fascionable.."

ouch, what a pun!

Gargoyle: many suppliers simply refused to take a purchase order from the State because they took about 6 months to pay

Yup, I'll believe that! To a corporate accountant, that's TWO QUARTERS in which the debt is outstanding, and government contracts tend to be BIG puppies. This isn't some suburban dink bouncing a check for a couple hundred, this is thousands and thousands of bucks here. That's a lot of missing money.

heck, I applied to work for the City and County here. Slowest interview/hiring process I've ever seen...over a month to find out I didn't get the job I applied for.

Icenine: That was a good one..Hope he doesn't take you TOO literally..hehe

just kidding,Andorion It worked..

RobbieFal:

I pay taxes because the goverment will rob me of my freedom if I do not.

There's no choice in it at all.

However, Home Depot has a choice here, and they made the correct one.

"Hey Chimpy.. Can I buy a banana off ya with my 'U.S.Navy' Visa card??"

http://www.geocities.com/tashndave/ape.gif

I'm actually wondering how widespread this is, i acutally work as a home depot cashier, and we havent been told to not sell to the government yet, although i am wondering if and when we will now.
I'm also going to have to agree with Gargoyle and Ishidan, i think much of their reasoning is the lapse in time the gov't can take to pay up, as well as the fact that they would have to follow all that bs about hiring practices and shiate, in fact if anything HD tends to be more diverse in its workforce than many other companies i've seen.

Frome here on out, I do my home-renovatin' shopping at the Depot. Case closed.

Folks,

Shop at your local merchant. Sure you might have to spend a few extra bucks, but the money stays in your economy and more Americans keep a living wage that way.

Also, my Home Depot did not know what an awl was, so Fark them!