It only took 43 years. I wonder what prompted the change.

Active military, veterans and their spouses can now receive 10% off eligible purchases online, in-store or in-app. Just apply and verify once at

https://www.homedepot.com/c/mi...y-_-military-_-OCT21

Previously, it was 10% for active, retired, and disabled only, not "regular" veterans. Regular veterans were eligible for a company-sanctioned discount only on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

Gotta keep up with Lowe’s. Now put me in a veterans parking spot. I didn’t think I’d like the parking as much as I do. The spot at Lowe’s practically has my name on it.

Home Depot has been great working with my service dog organization. They donated materials and labor to fence our property and even built a little dog house. One of our veteran recipients needed a fence for his yard before he could bring his dog home, so Home Depot donated labor and materials to fence his yard. They also landscaped it and donated a patio set for the family. Great folks at the Home Depot Foundation.

I went to Home Depot a week ago and they told me that I need to register. What was also on the paper they gave me was that there is a limit of $400. And it’s a limit of saving $400 total and that I will get an email of when I’m approaching $400. It didn’t specify if it was per year or total. But either way I guess I’ll go to lowes

I noticed the same too and wondered why. For a few years I had the Lowes veteran discount but could not Home Depot until a month or so ago when I learned I could ... and now I do.

I noticed they had started doing that around here, I had to buy a roll of 10/3 wire for a new dryer circuit and asked for it at the checkout expecting to be shot down, but they gave it to me, very nice with the insane price of copper wire right now!

I don’t understand…

I’m a regular vet and have been getting a discount for years?

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
I don’t understand…

I’m a regular vet and have been getting a discount for years?

Yeah, I know the HD I go to has applied a 10% discount for any Vet that identifies themselves as such and inquires about it for quite some time. Then again, the manager of my HD (a very funny and bright Hispanic woman) is rather bold to put it mildly in how she handles her store.

The only changes here is extending to spouses and registering (Lowes has required registration for a while).

They have been giving 10% off for years…. 20 I’m aware of (as a supplier to HD)

I'm one of the "regular" veterans, not retired, just four years USN plus two USNR.

Whenever I bought anything at Home Depot, that was pricey enough for the 10% to make a difference, I just asked for the veteran discount and showed my Florida Driver License with the "Veteran" designator. They always gave me the discount without question.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I'm one of the "regular" veterans, not retired, just four years USN plus two USNR.

Whenever I bought anything at Home Depot, that was pricey enough for the 10% to make a difference, I just asked for the veteran discount and showed my Florida Driver License with the "Veteran" designator. They always gave me the discount without question.

Yep, same here at the local HD in MA. Never said no or had any special conditions.

quote:

Originally posted by old dino:
I noticed the same too and wondered why. For a few years I had the Lowes veteran discount but could not Home Depot until a month or so ago when I learned I could ... and now I do.

One ding against Lowes is that their veteran discount only applies to regular priced items.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
I don’t understand…

I’m a regular vet and have been getting a discount for years?

me too!

I have always had difficulty asking for preferential treatment or discounts.

My birthday is Veterans Day. I am a two-tour Vietnam veteran with multiple awards of the Purple Heart medal. I clearly remember being treated as a social outcast if I was identified as being a Vietnam veteran in any social setting. I clearly remember every depiction of Vietnam veterans in TV or movies as being drug-addled sociopathic homicidal maniacs. I clearly remember being treated as some kind of societal reject during visits to VA clinics and hospitals. The VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) would not accept us as members because we weren't "real veterans" of a "real war".

Past 20 years or so, all of a sudden and completely out of the blue sky, veterans became heroes. People see the Purple Heart license plates on my truck at the gas station and go out of their way to try and shake my hand with a waxy smile and a "Thanks for your service", and sometimes it is all I can do to keep myself from asking them "Where the hell were you 50 years ago?".

Companies offering veteran discounts are doing so as a marketing gimmick to position themselves for profit, and competing with others in their marketplaces for maximizing their patriotic love for veterans as a means of growing their businesses. Pimping themselves and pandering to the greater gods of bottom line. They make me sick with their bullshit advertising campaigns.

Sure, I take my free set of license plates every year. I take my free prescription benefits from the Veterans Administration. 50 years after coming home from Vietnam the second time the VA finally decided to award me 70% service-connected disability compensation, and I take that.

For perspective, I was 18 years old the first time I was wounded in action, I was 19 years old when I was promoted to sergeant and made responsible for a dozen other teenaged soldiers, and I had yet to reach my 21st birthday when I came home from my second combat tour. Couldn't vote, couldn't walk into a bar and order a beer. Saw a lot of businesses around military bases with signs "NO DOGS. NO SOLDIERS". The 'better class' families certainly didn't allow their daughters to date military men. Learned to never mention my military service at a nice party. I remember being under orders prohibiting us from leaving the post while in uniform to avoid confrontations with protestors.

My salary as a new Army private was $94 per month. When promoted to sergeant my salary was $248.75 per month (plus $65 combat pay, $30 overseas pay, $55 hazardous duty/jump pay), and no income tax while in the combat zone. My current VA disability payments are about 7 times what I used to make as a sergeant/airborne infantry pathfinder team leader in Vietnam (and tax-free to boot).

For decades the Purple Heart and a buck-and-a-half might get me a cup of coffee, maybe. Now all of a sudden we are everybody's darlings and heroes? Give me a break.

quote:

Originally posted by Patriot:
I don’t understand…

I’m a regular vet and have been getting a discount for years?

So have I. This is odd.

Like Lobo, I also have difficulty asking for or receiving the discount for veterans. I don't have an issue with me or anyone else receiving VA care/benefits for injuries received, loss of function, etc. I view government benefits for service rendered to the government as being different from getting benefits from private industry/entities for government service.

Lobo hit it on head by pointing out that companies are using veterans as a marketing gimmick. Maybe it's the so often fake "Thank you for your service" that prevents me from asking for, or makes me hesitate in taking when offered, the veterans' discount. Like many veterans here, I didn't care for that program when it started and never will because for many people and companies it's just another box to check in order to enhance their very thin shell of virtuousness.

There is a difference between asking for a vet discount and accepting a discount being offered.

I don’t know if anyone would walk into 7-11 and ask for a vet discount. 7-11 does not advertise nor promote a discount. Home Depot does so asking is no issue at all.

Ive gotten the discount from them for the past several years. Only recently, though has it been available with online purchases.
What sucks, is that HD and Lowes only offer it for regular priced items. There's always a sale of some kind going on with most appliances and power tools, so they're rarely eligible for the discount.

Been getting the discount for years now, with Lowe's it was never questioned until their "registration" went into affect, HD questioned it up front if not a holiday with some older female clerks chastising me for asking - in front of my wife. That was a one time occurance and HD changed course to make it all year.

I usually don't ask if the purchases aren't worth the effort ie under $30. Definitely anything over $100.

Auto Parts chains offer it so I ask at my former employer and get it, otherwise, it's a lot more limited. I can't think of anyone who offers it in department stores, Walmart, Target, gas stations, grocery stores, etc. For most of what I buy, the short list of where to ask is easy to remember.

I have fun asking for Military Discount at an Army Surplus store or a vendor at a gun show. Online some of the gun parts folks do it but I'm not sending my DD214 or a copy of my ID. For the most part I find it cheaper elsewhere, anyway.

This whole Mil Discount took off after 9/11, before that it was rare. Saying it's been 43 years isn't accurate. In the day, nobody got a discount unless you were in the PX - back then things were cheap until Congress forced them to increase prices to cover payroll, and that stopped it dead. Class 6 is about the only thing cheap in the service now.

I don't like asking for the discount. That's where Lowes beats HD. At Lowes, you sign up for the "MyLowes" card, which has it's own benefits and you register as a Vet, then you simply show them the card or scan it at self checkout and you get the discount. Yeah, I know they track your purchases so they can target advertising to your likes... I'm fine with as long as they don't sell the info which they say they don't do. HD doesn't have the card set up so the info has to be given at the cashier. You used to have to ask for it, but lately the cashiers are proactive and ask if you are a Vet. I like that much better.

Is all of this a ploy to make themselves look like America loving patriates? Perhaps, but the beneficiaries are Vets who realize actual cash. I call it a win for Vets, no matter the motivation.