Why We’re (Still) Dropping Home Depot, and are “meh” on Lowe’s
This week’s focus is on Hardware and Home Repair, with information on Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace, and True Value.
Summary – Switch Your Spending from Home Depot Today:
- Before the election, Home Depot was already one of our top recommendations for a brand to avoid if you support reproductive freedom and LGBTQ+ equality. Home Depot and one of its founders (Bernard Marcus) were consistently among the largest direct donors to the most extreme anti-choice and anti-equality legislators.
- Marcus, who passed away in November, was also a big Trump supporter through multiple election cycles, including a $2.7m donation to Trump’s most recent inauguration fund.
- During the 2022 election cycle, Home Depot led the Fortune 500 in contributions to legislators who objected to certifying the 2020 election results.
- Home Depot has been and remains one of our top brands to avoid. It has gotten worse, not better.
- Bang for the Buck. The average HD shopper spends over $850/year – if we switch together, this one action can make a significant impact in helping move consumer spending away from companies working against reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ equality, and democracy.
Actions You Can Take Now:
- Click “Switch” above so we can count you as part of the movement away from Home Depot. Already avoiding HD? Click Switch to show your support for this work!
- Subscribe to our newsletter for more research and recommendations on how we can use our consumer power to make a difference.
- Forward this page to your network and help us grow the movement of people putting our consumer power into action.
Summary – Lowe’s:
- Lowe’s gets a tepid “well, it’s better than Home Depot…” yellow rating.
- The donations from Lowe’s to the legislators on our watch list for anti-choice and anti-equality efforts are definitely lower than Home Depot’s, but they are still funding people working hard against reproductive freedom and equality.
- We do not (yet) see any significant connections between Lowe’s and Trump or the Trump administration, but will keep tracking this.
- If you have to choose one of the big two, choose Lowe’s. Better yet, support your local hardware store or one of the green light options below.
Summary – Ace and True Value:
- We have seen scattered online reports of connections between these companies and Trump, but have been unable to verify any of these claims. Please let us know if you have specific evidence or sources showing direct corporate financial contributions to Trump.
- Neither has been a direct contributor to the most extreme anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ+ politicians we track.
- We still recommend supporting Ace and True Value based on the issues we track. True Value recently went through bankruptcy and has been acquired, and we will update our recommendations if/when warranted.
- Bonus: Ace is a retailer-owned cooperative, and True Value stores are independently owned and operated. If “buying local” is important, these two are the way to go.
In Case You Missed It
Many thanks to @msmagazine.com and Shoshanna Ehrlich for their recent coverage of our work – you can check it out here!
See our recent recommendations on Uber, Tesla/X, and Aribnb here.
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