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To: Giordano Bruno who wrote (176522)	7/1/2002 7:07:28 AM
From: Giordano Bruno	Respond to of 436258

Home Depot Reverses Its Ban On Making Federal Purchases By RICK BROOKS Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ATLANTA -- Home Depot Inc. has decided it likes Uncle Sam after all. The home-improvement retailer said it plans to go after business from the U.S. government, reversing a longstanding company policy recently reiterated in a companywide memo. Only two weeks ago, Home Depot insisted it didn't have the capability to handle the paperwork and labor-reporting requirements that apply if it sold products or services to the federal government. Home Depot was tight-lipped on the reasons for its about-face, saying in a statement the decision "was based on feedback" from customers and employees, as well as a new review of the data-reporting requirements for companies that sell goods and services to federal agencies. Home Depot spokesman Jerry Shields wouldn't comment on the new policy. Home Depot had raised a ruckus among affirmative-action advocates and bewildered its own employees with a memo last month instructing its 1,300 stores nationwide not to accept federal-government credit cards or purchase orders. The company also began sending notices to commercial customers with in-store credit cards telling them they shouldn't buy supplies from Home Depot if those purchases could end up in a federal project. The memo added Home Depot "would be delighted" to sell products and services to federal employees for their personal use. Home Depot had said the ban on federal purchasing wasn't an attempt to avoid affirmative-action reporting and other federal requirements beyond general antidiscrimination laws, claiming the memo simply reminded store managers about a policy in place since the retailer opened its first stores in 1979. But the ban seemed out of sync with recent moves by Home Depot to cooperate with the federal government, including an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to help find employees for the world's second-largest retailer after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Lowe's Cos. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., Home Depot's closest rivals in home improvement, had no such policy on federal-government purchases. Within the past two weeks, Home Depot officials met with the General Services Administration, which provides office space, services and supplies for federal agencies, according to a person familiar with the situation. It isn't clear if those discussions persuaded Home Depot to drop its ban. "We always want to do business with good companies that want to do business with us," GSA spokeswoman Mary Alice Johnson said. Shirley Wilcher, former head of the Labor Department's federal contract-compliance programs office and now executive director of Americans for a Fair Chance, an affirmative-action advocacy group in Washington, said she was pleased by Home Depot's reversal but still is "looking for some expression of support for the principles of equal opportunity." Bob Bowe, chief executive officer of an information-technology company in northern Virginia, said he plans to drop his personal boycott of Home Depot that he began after hearing about the ban, which he called "unpatriotic." "I will go back, but if it is a choice between them and Lowe's, I'm going to Lowe's," he said. -- Chad Terhune contributed to this story.