By Mike Freeman

Home Depot, the national home improvement department store chain recently instituted a curious business strategy; "Don't sell to the government." Andrew Schneider, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter broke the story last Sunday. Apparently, the move is a reinstitution of a long held, yet obscure and rarely followed business practice which purports to focus Home Depot sales on individual "do-it-yourself" consumers and small contractors. The instructions issued by the corporate headquarters to store managers mandated that sales associates were not to take government credit cards, purchase orders, or even cash if the items were going to be used by the federal government. Store managers and GSA officials alike were stunned and confused by the directive. One Home Depot employee was quoted as saying; "It feels weird telling some kid in uniform that I canÍt sell him 10 gallons of paint because we don't do business with the government."

The official reasoning, as provided by company spokesman Tom Gray, is that sales to the Federal Government are not part of the company's business strategy. Apparently, exclusion of government business is necessary to cultivate the supply relationship Home Depot pursues with home-improvers and small contracting companies. The document, sent by Home Depot headquarters to branch stores, outlines specific examples of prohibited sales activity, and instructs associates on how to turn down government purchasers.

Further investigation into the motivation behind this business strategy reveals that the company is unwilling to assume responsibility for compliance with three affirmative action laws. Specifically listed among them is the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974. Essentially, this Act provides 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. Among those encompassed by the act are veterans who fought in Vietnam, the Gulf War, and those fighting in the war against terrorism.

Why doesn't Home Depot want to hire veterans? As those who watched coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympics learned, Home Depot is quite willing to employ Olympic athletes to peddle their products. Perhaps the thought of a war hardened veteran roaming the bathroom fixture department is distasteful to Home Depot management. It seems clear from Home Depot that they have no specific complaints against government purchasers. What the government is guilty of is asking Home Depot to accept credit cards and comply with the laws of the State by hiring Veterans.

So, what does this new Home Depot policy mean? Deliveries of supplies purchased to help rebuild the destroyed portions of the Pentagon are prohibited, but sales and deliveries to the Iraqi consulate proceed without question. Home Depot has made it clear that they won't deliver to Veterans Hospitals. By the same token, can we assume that they wouldn't deliver to Andrews Air Force Base next time we need to head overseas to rescue US embassy personnel trapped in the rubble of a building targeted by terrorists? Government and military purchasing personnel may not have a choice in this matter, but retirees and government families do. Where does Home Depot think they're going to buy their light bulbs now? Loss of a 3,000 unit sale to one military installation is easier to stomach than loss of 3,000 sales to individual consumers.

If generating revenue can be considered a sacrifice, the sacrifice asked of here is not a large one; Endure the government purchasing process, accept government credit cards, and comply with U.S. laws. This shameful forbearance of unwritten obligation reflects poorly upon the climate of corporate patriotism that ensued following the 9/11 attacks. It isn't enough anymore to parade Olympic athletes through your paint department, or to flash pictures of Tony Stewart standing at attention during the national anthem at a NASCAR race. The political climate, indeed, the very spirit of nationalism upon which our Constitution is based, demands more of corporate America. Thomas Paine once wrote "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

So where do you plan on buying your next home improvement product? With summer and the outdoor season well underway, might I suggest you skip Home Depot? I hear Lowes has a great deal on light bulbs.

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Mike Freeman is an Adjunct Scholar at Frontiers of Freedom, a non-profit, non-partisan public policy institute dedicated to protecting the constitutional rights of all Americans and restoring constitutional limits on the extent and power of government. You may email the author at mfreeman@ff.org