- Home Depot is changing the way its US stores sell ropes after a knot was allegedly found at a North Carolina store.
- This incident is the latest in a series of similar events in stores and elsewhere.
- “Unfortunately, we have had some cases where coiled rope was used to create symbols of hatred and we are not going to tolerate it,” Home Depot spokeswoman Margaret Watters Smith said in a statement. “As a precaution, we temporarily remove the spool rope from our hallways.”
- Home Depot will replace longer lengths of rope on reels with shorter precut lengths.
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Home Depot is changing the way it sells rope in its stores after a rope was allegedly discovered at a North Carolina store, the latest in a series of similar store events across the United States.
In June, a woman claimed she found two ropes in the Charlotte Home Depot hallway, to which Home Depot responded in a statement saying she was “horrified and disturbed by the incident.” Last July, another woman posted on Facebook about a similar experience at a Denver Home Depot.
“Unfortunately, we have had some cases where coiled rope was used to create symbols of hatred and we are not going to tolerate it,” Home Depot spokeswoman Margaret Watters Smith said in a statement. “As a precaution, we temporarily remove the spool rope from our hallways.”
The home improvement retailer will now replace longer lengths of rope on reels with shorter precut lengths, which will be packaged in plastic. Smith said associates should be available to help with specific requests in stores if a customer requires another length of rope that is not offered on pre-cut picks.
Rope sightings, a type of knot associated with lynchings of black individuals since slavery, have become more common in recent weeks, amid the push from the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace recently reported finding a rope in his garage, though an FBI investigation found that no federal crime had been committed.
