Time to boycott Home Depot?

http://www.ajc.com/today/content/epaper/editions/today/news_044a66901259a0b21010.html
From today's Atlanta Journal Constitution:

"Underscoring Georgia's growing importance to the Republican Party, both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will be in the state Monday raising money.

After a stop in Topeka, Kan., the president will fly to Atlanta for a late afternoon fund-raiser at the Buckhead mansion of Home Depot Chairman and CEO Bob Nardelli, state party officials confirmed Thursday."


That's enough for me. Based here in Atlanta so I hate to stop supporting a local company. However, think I'm a Lowe's guy from now on. Darn it. I have spent a lot of money in Home Depot in the past.

run government. Don't invest in them either, their service sucks so bad in a market where competition rules that they are doomed.

Near us, HD and Lowes are across the street from each other. Looks like I'll be turning left into the Lowes (really, it is on the left, HD on the right side of the approach!).

Screw Home Depot. I hope someone there reads this. I haven't stepped foot in an Exxon station (and now Mobile, too) since the Valdez. I'm sure I can stay away from HD, too.

Cause HD and Lowes are across the street from each other in my town.
But I will definitely be turning left.

I need about 200 pickets to shadowbox the fence I started last summer at $2.45 each. The pickets came from Home Depot and I've found nothing similar from any other home improvement company, not to mention the fact that trying to use standard cedar boards cut to lenght would be about twice as expensive as using these spcific cedar pickets.

The closest Lowes to me right now is about 20 miles away while the Home Depot I use is about 2 miles away.

The good news is, they've been building a new Lowes just down the road from the Home Depot. It opens in early July.

I'll never set foot in the Home Depot again after that Lowes opens.

Home Depot are Rethugs, Lowes has been sued for "Chinese Overtime" and screwing over their employees, I have successfully boycotted WalMart for years now...I will go back and try the local garden centers again, but most don't carry a wide variety of stone.

We have a few local hardware stores, but what if the owners are your "small business owner Rethugs"? Well, guess it's still better than the mega stores.

Crap.

I avoid shopping there too. No Lowes in Rochester. Best place here is Mill's Fleet Farm

When I lived in Indy, there was a story about a shift manager at Menards getting fired because he built a deck at his house, and did it all himeself. Came out in the story that Menards has a "no home projects" rule for their employees, "To prevent pilfering"..

Sounds like something ReTHUG managemnet would enact..."I know, Dee Emm, to keep the pigs from taking all the plywood and 4X4's home for their own projects, we'll make a rule requiring them to use contractors for all their home improvement projects, that way, they won't steal the wood!"

And add to that the fact their selection sucks and the help doesn't know a casing nail from a piece of conduit.

And Lowes fucks their help.

And Home Depot is ReTHUG owned.

And your local "Ace" hardware? I'll bet the guy who owns that gives a lot of money to the GOP, too.

Best defense I can think of is to just wear a "Bush KNEW!" T-shirt when you go shopping....

I mean, who is Menard's to tell its employees what they can do off the clock -- and how they can do it? Unless Menard's doesn't pay its employees squat, its DIY people can always BUY their stuff from them -- why the hell would they be tempted to steal? Or they could always go somewhere else for supplies and materials.

Okay, I am ranting, but the employment policies of some of these companies are just so damned IRRATIONAL and PETTY.

Happened in Indianapolis in the early 90's, was reported in the local paper.
Sorry, no link that I'm aware of.

"John Menard, the company's wealthy founder, was fined $1.7 million by the DNR in 1997 for violating Wisconsin's environmental laws. Menard had been hauling garbage bags of hazardous waste to his home for pickup by local garbage haulers. The bags contained fly ash and bottom ash laced with arsenic and chromium."

He's also filling in some wetlands in Wisconsin to build a new store.

http://www.wsn.org/wetlands/Menards.html

i spent 7 years with home depot as a part-time kitchen designer when Bernie Marcus was still there, Nardelli is ruining home depot. It used to be a good place to work that actually hired real licensed professionals until Nardelli took over, now most of the staff is part-time 32 hours a week or less and the pay scale changed and imho the ruined what Bernie created.

on another thread today or yesterday. Anybody know anything more about Lowes?

as i mentioned in my earlier post.

"Chinese Overtime". For example, say you are salaried at $1,000/week for 40 hours, but you are eligible for O/T. Say you work 50 hours one week. In a normal world, you'd get time and half based on $25/hour regular pay.

But what Lowe's was sued for, was adjusting your rate of pay, here, $1000/50 hours (not 40), new "rate of pay" is $20, and that is the basis they use to pay you your overtime.

Nice, huh? The more O/T, the less your paycheck ended up being based on the new rate.

just last month, buying our washer and dryer. I would say that their delivery and "installation" (I use the term loosely, since my husband and I basically did it ourselves) completely suck, and they were four days late, plus they totally blew off my complaints until my husband had to go down there and act like a lunatic in the store to get them to help us out.

So, we'll never be shopping at Lowes again. I've always hated Home Depot too, so I guess we'll be at any small, indie hardware store we can find.

2 months ago i bought a new dishwasher at lowes and it was delivered and installed in 4 days and the installer had a anti bush shirt on.

--one to our own home and one to a rental property. Delivered and installed one the next day, the other had to be backordered so took about 4 or 5 days. In both cases they called to let us know around what time they'd be coming. The second one was damaged (oven element was bent and flopping around) and they came right back 2 days later and swapped it.

The local one had a Haley Barbour for Governor sign up on their fenceline.

Is Lowes a Republican company?

against pro-Bush companies?
Or would that list be so big that there is no point in one?

The top two guys at Home Depot have the top two digs at Toxaway. The Greystone Inn boat-tour shows the rich patrons of that expensive inn the houses of the really rich.

OH SHIT...I started using their paint in my living room and don't know what I'll do if I run out now. :argh: I won't give my money to a repig so if I can't match the paint I will just repaint the whole thing with paint from a Democratic store (if I can find one). :-(

I did the same thing as you but then one day on impulse asked at Lowes if they could match some paint from a different place and it turned out they could--the matching is done by a scan of the paint chip--a computer figures out the correct proportions of the different colors used in the mix. They mixed up a batch at Lowes that is indistinguishable from the Home Depot paint. I also have matched expensive "designer" paint chips in inexpensive brands. I think you could have your favorite blouse or shirt matched if you wanted :)

Should be VERY easy to match anywhere else.

that will save me many, many hours of work! :hi:

I've always hated them because they subject their employees to mandatory drug testing, which I think should be illegal for positions that don't involve dangerous equipment.

I agree, I'd like to boycott all the businesses that support Bush too, but Walmart is their biggest supporter and they own Lowes. I prefer Home Depot because they at least seem to treat their employees better that Wally World.

It's getting tough to find any businesses that don't support the pubs. Isn't that one of the main accusations against ShrubCo....they are the party of business over people?

are Democratic contributers--can you back this up?
that is awful if true because I have refused to enter WalMart for the past 3 years or so (except to leave "deposits" in the toilets). I despise Wal-Mart! I stopped going to Home Depot after learning they were RW-owned and even own a tiny bit of Lowes stock. Anybody else ever hear anything like this?

Are you sure they are owned by Wall-world? If so, they are out for me too. I can't support Wal-Mart.
Maybe, as some suggested above, we should just avoid ALL of the big boy companies and go to the locally owned small businesses (not even sure where I can find a Mom and Pop hardware store - but, I will look for one).
I guess it's just BushCo's world and we are all living it...hopefully, this nightmare will be over on November 3.

According to SEC filings in 2004, the largest shareholders are:

FMR Corp (Fidelity Management & Research, Boston, MA) 4.27% Edward C. Johnson 3d
AXA Assurances I.A.R.D. Mutuelle, France 5%


You can find all their filings at http://www.lowes.com

I scoured them for anything about Wallmart or Wall Corp and found nothing.

I heard about the in-store republican fundraisers they were having, pressuring employees to donate right wing.

I'm a craftsman. So there are times when I almost live in hardware stores. I've found that I can find almost anything better, faster, and cheaper at my local family-owned hardward store than I can at HD -- plus, a little chit-chat and a few jokes with neighbors that actually know my name.

Especially during an earthquake. If I was in California I'd be so far away from those places. I mean is that even legal to stack heavy shit that high over there in a retail establishment?

Was talking with a Lowe's clerk that was quite happy since he had left Home Depot. After a little smoozing, he volunteered that "Home Depot treats it's people like Walmart does". I have spent plenty of $$$$$ @ Home Depot ($1500 last month), but no more. Lowe's is definitly a more shoper friendly store, IMHO...... BTW DUers, think of the economic impact our lil' "commy-pinko" forum has!

First, I live in the Atlanta area, and generally like to support companies based here. However, Home Depot has pretty much lost my business. First, their customer service is just awful. Nobody is ever around to help, or answer questions. Right now, I am in the process of building a deck. In my opinion the lumber at home depot is awful. If you are buying 5 boards, you have to go through 15 usually to find usable ones. It seems like most of their lumber is bad for one reason or another (warped, knots, cupped, you name it). I was pretty hard core home depot, also because the guy that owns the football team I root for (Atlanta Falcons, Arthur Blank) was a founder of home depot. It is no fun having to move around 12' 2 x 10's to find a couple to use, those things are heavy. Price wise, I think Lowe's and Home Depot are about the same...Kevin.

I have actually been boycotting them since Shrubby made a disgusting speach at some Home Depot venue and I found out how GWB-supporting they are...

.but I am doing this project that involves stepping stones that I couldn't find ANYWHERE to match the beginning of the project, except Home Depot...I felt so guilty buying them there! Like contributing to the Dark Side....Never again!

btw, and this is good for you too...Krispy Kreme donuts are a MAJOR shrub supporter, do yourself a favor and have a healthy breakfast.

Krispy Kreme is losing money big time because of the low carb diets. They are supposedly really really hurting. Damn, yet another local company that supports the man in Al Gore's House, that is a pisser...Kevin.