My Letter to Home Depot About Why I'll Now Shop at Lowe's

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Friday July 27, 2007 · 8:24 PM PDT

2007/07/27 · 20:24

Now that Lowe's has dumped O'Reilly, I think it's time that I dump Home Depot for Lowe's. So here's the letter I wrote to Paul Raines, Home Depot's Executive Vice President for U.S. Stores, letting him know that his company's continued support for Fox will have me spending my money at their competitor. I also sent a copy to Lowe's to show that taking a stand has its rewards

I would encourage other people to do the same. Bleed Fox dry of ad dollars. But remember: if Home Depot comes around, then go back to them, tell them you are, and tell them why.

paul_raines@homedepot.com
Executive Vice President, U.S. Stores

Dear Mr. Raines

When I moved to Maplewood, New Jersey, six years ago, I told my friend Dave how frequently I was going to your Home Depot in neighboring Union (the one pictured in Newsweek a few years back on how huge your stores were getting). He laughed and said I should just bring $100 every time I went because that's how much I'd be spending; I'd always find more things there that I didn't yet realize I needed. I laughed, but he proved correct. I've spent a fortune at that store, and I've never regretted a dime of it--until today.

Each year I've bought from Home Depot 15 bags of mulch in the spring and 5 cans of acetylene gas for my tailgating grill in the fall. I bought my mower there. More lawn care stuff than I can calculate. Garden hoses. Painting supplies. Wood. Tools ranging from screwdrivers to drills, hedgetrimmers to weedkiller tanks. Everything I needed to rebuild the workings of toilet. Dry wall, spackle and tape. Power strips. Light switches and dimmers. Lightbulbs of all sorts by the case. I'm telling you, I could make a map of that store right now, I've been there so much. I think the only thing I haven't bought is one of those square pencils you have to sharpen with a pocket knife, although I've always coveted one.

And my five-year-old daughter loves the Home Depot too. She thinks of the cabinets and appliances sections as rooms in a giant dollhouse.

True, I'm a Jimmy Johnson fan and I think Tony Stewart's a showboating yokel for climbing fences after a win, but when the #20 was displayed at your Union store, my daughter and I were thrilled to see it (OK, she was two at the time and I was thrilled for the both of us).

But we're done with Home Depot now and we're going to start going to the Lowe's in Union, even though it's farther away, because today Lowe's, having realized what a hatemonger Bill O'Reilly is, pulled its ads from his show. Meanwhile Home Depot will continue to advertise on Fox, the hatemonger's hatemonger. As the Washington Post reported today, "Home Depot has not had an unusual number of calls, said spokesman Jerry Shields, and the home improvement chain will not change its advertising strategy."

BTW, I think Mr. Shields will soon see his phone light up. The DailyKos community made Lowe's aware of just how contaminated their message was becoming by O'Reilly's insanity. When informed of Lowe's positive response to their complaints, they started turning on Home Depot for sticking with Fox. You might take a look at the comments following this post:

http://www.dailykos.com/...

It's not pretty.

It'll be sad thing, not going to the Union Home Depot, but I won't have my money go to Fox. I'm sorry.

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My Letter to Home Depot About Why I'll Now Shop at Lowe's

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