[ChuckDickerson]

We have always been successful negotiating at least a discount with our local Home Depot through the store manager. We don’t buy a huge amount there but usually just the materials for the practice field. We usually get our stuff in our carts and when ready to check out we ask to speak to the manager and nicely explain that we are the local high school robotics team and are needing build supplies for the practice field or whatever and ask if they could help us out with at least an educational discount. Depending on the manager on duty at the time and the amount of stuff we have piled on the cart(s) we have usually been successful at negotiating between a 10% and 25% discount. We then list Home Depot as a sponsor at least on our shirts. We have similar arrangements with other local businesses as I have always assumed most teams do.

I do believe that if I was to ask a store manager to help out a local school project and was shown the door I would also never shop at Home Depot again either. Fortunately, our experience with support from our local Home Depot has usually been very positive. We are making a run Home Depot run first thing tomorrow evening for more practice field materials. I’ll just have to look into this coupon thing. Thanks for the heads up!