An ice scraper might be one of the simplest things you can buy at a store like home improvement giant Home Depot (HD), but this little buy made big problems for Home Depot over the weekend as day laborers joined in on the protest action. Backed up by the tagline “scrape ICE out of their stores,” the protest seems to have had some impact. In fact, Home Depot stock slipped modestly in Monday morning’s trading.
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The plan was simple enough. Protesters found one of the cheapest items in Home Depot, an ice scraper valued just under $1. Then, the protesters bought the ice scraper in fairly large numbers, only to turn around and return the item minutes later. This kind of protest apparently has a name: a “buy-in.” It is designed to jam up a company’s operations by doing something that no one can reasonably prevent, specifically, buying and returning items.
Co-executive director for the National Day Laborer’s Organizing Network Pablo Alvarado noted, “Whether the corporation wants to admit it or not, Home Depot has become ground zero for this cruel, vicious immigration enforcement that’s taking place in our country.” Demonstrators also reportedly wandered the stores, pounding makeshift drums made from Home Depot buckets and calling on Home Depot to “…scrape ICE out of their stores.”
Aisle Three: Romance
Meanwhile, reports also emerged of an unexpected development, as apparently, Home Depot is becoming the backdrop for attempts to find love. One report came out of the Boston area, where a 71-year-old discovered that he or she—the article was unclear which—“hit it off with the man at the paint counter in the local Home Depot.”
The article then went on to make some suggestions on how to follow up, but apparently, this particular trend goes back to at least the start of this year and potentially beyond. One report detailed how a woman ended up going viral for finding love at Home Depot back around Valentine’s Day, and sparked a bit of a trend some call “Home Depot Dating.” And, apparently, this trend had legs sufficient to carry it into this very day.
Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 18 Buys, five Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 19.91% loss in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $409.91 per share implies 20.79% upside potential.
