Registry

Since 2006, when Home Depot #3303 opened in Spanish Springs, my federally-issued Veterans Administration military identification has always garnered me a ten percent discount on all products but wood at the chain box store. No longer.

The discount was the only reason I had for going to Home Depot instead of Ace or Big R Supply.

As I prepared to pay for a new garbage disposal and kitchen faucet set, I learned that showing my card no longer worked because the company had removed the ‘veterans discount key’ from the register. Instead, Home Depot wants military veterans to register a telephone number to access the discount.

Not only will I not do it, I can’t do it. Filling out forms, regardless of length, virtually or in hand, causes me anxiety. In turn, this feeds into my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD,) and once my PTSD is triggered, for lack of a better descriptor, I am pretty much done until I can get it and myself back under control.

Also, being a ‘conspiracy theorist,’ who has been correct at least 90 percent of the time, meaning those theories, once poo-poo’d, have turned out to be fact, having to register my cell phone number to get a discount seems nefarious. After all, when the federal and state governments shut down the U.S. economy during the pandemic, Home Depot was deemed essential and was allowed to remain open.

That fact has always seemed suspicious, as churches, playgrounds, and golf courses were not. And suspicion being what it is, my mind immediately drew a line from registering my cell number to a possible list of collected veteran addresses that could be accessed at any time by God-only-knows-who and for whatever reason.

Unfortunately, I have taken the circuitous route to explain that Home Depot has lost my business. My freedom from lists the federal government may or may not have access to is more important than any discount the company could offer me. Call me paranoid, but I will take my business to the local mom-and-pop hardware store from here on out, which is better for the local economy.

So now, it is time to warm up my vocal cords before I begin installing the garbage disposal because I don’t want to hurt myself as I yell, scream, and cuss up a storm at how uneasy it is supposed to be putting in an easy-to-install appliance.