Home Depot review: racial profiling and discrimination while shopping at home depot 50

December 15, 2010
Hello everyone,

It’s me Mike Lewis again and a year ago I came to you telling you to not shop at Loews Home Improvement because they discriminate against minorities, I told you to support your local mom and pop shops and Home Depot. Sadly to say, that on November 21, 2010 I was at the Home Depot in Bowie MD making a purchase at the self check out that for some reason was not working, so the cashier next to the self check out said she would take me. My purchase was $54 and after the cashier rang me up she asked me if it was cash or credit and I said credit. The cashier then said she needed to see my ID and I asked why? She said the store policy was that any credit card purchases required ID because she said they have had a lot of people using credit cards that were not authorized and she said it came from the store manager that told her to do this check. Once again, I told her that if it’s a policy it needs to be written down and displayed like it is in the liquor stores. I refused to show my ID but she saw something in my wallet with my name on it and let the transaction go through. She assured me that she would talk to her store manager and let the manager know that it needs to be a written policy for all to see.
When I called the store the next day and talked to the store manager and the District manager, I was told it was NOT a policy to check ID for credit card purchases unless the credit card is not signed. After a weeks of dealing with this issue, I was told by the Home depot district manager and corporate headquarters that the reason I was questioned for an ID was because I was purchasing paint. However this excuse that Home Depot is trying to tell me was NOT what I was told by the cashier at the time I was harassed and humiliated for my ID because she thought I might be a thief, NOT because I was buying paint!
I let Home Depot know that I was harassed, humiliated and discriminated not because I was buying paint, but because I was a black male. What I wanted from Home Depot was a written apology and to discuss this matter with Frank Blake the CEO of Home Depot to let him know that his employees need to be trained to NOT pick and choose who they will discriminate against in his stores. When I sent all this information to Frank’s office, they had only African American employees to call me and try to make excuses for what happened and I was told that Frank would never talk to me concerning this matter, even though it was a matter of discrimination he was too important and busy to concern himself with this matter.
What I want you to do is to contact Frank and let him know that it is 2010 and we will NOT put up with this type of treatment in his or anyone else’s store. Discrimination must be wiped out and Home Depot and Frank Blake the CEO of Home Depot needs to be held accountable because our African American money is as green as anyone else’s. I am going to put this incident on boycott.com, consumerist.com and pissedoffconsumer.com to let others know about the racial profiling and discrimination while shopping at Home Depot.
Here is Frank Blake the CEO of Home Depots telephone number [protected] ext 15659 and
you can also email [protected]@homedepot.com to let him know we will not stand for discrimination of any form.

Sincerely,
Mike Lewis

View 0 more photos