public plumbing, HVAC, waterworks, and building-products distributor
Ferguson
Industry Retail
A public distributor selling plumbing, HVAC, waterworks, appliances, lighting, industrial, and building products through branches, showrooms, and digital channels. Ferguson supports essential repair and construction work, but shareholder governance, contractor-market power, building-material footprint, and customer-data practices limit the evaluation.
Why this matters: Ferguson is a major plumbing and building-products competitor for Grainger, Fastenal, Home Depot Pro, Lowe's Pro, and local supply houses.
Letter grade D Extractive High confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.
Evaluation Overview
D - Extractive
The score turns mainly on Market Conduct, with the largest penalty coming from Ecological Harm.
Strengths
- Market Conduct3/5
- Product Integrity3/5
- Extraction2/10
Penalties
- Ecological Harm-3
- Accountability Opacity-2
- Surveillance Capture-2
- Toxic Products-1
Evidence state
- ConfidenceHigh confidence (AI)
- ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
- Linked claims25
- Direct axis claims13
- Coverage13/13
Scoring Axes
| Axis | Score | Why this score |
|---|---|---|
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control
at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
Ferguson is controlled through shareholder, private, family, or executive ownership rather than worker, customer, supplier, tenant, renter, or community ownership. Linked evidence
|
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic
stakeholder control at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
Ferguson does not give customers, workers, suppliers, local communities, or affected households binding democratic authority over governance. Linked evidence
|
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured
extraction judgment.
|
2 / 10 |
Ferguson sells useful goods or services through a conventional retail, rental, distribution, or industrial-supply model that routes surplus through owners, executives, or public shareholders. Linked evidence
|
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at
7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence
shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling,
retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of
worker voice, or extreme turnover.
|
1 / 7 |
Ferguson appears to rely on ordinary retail, warehouse, delivery, branch, or service employment rather than worker control, co-determination, or durable labor veto power. Linked evidence
|
Solidarity with the
Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment,
and non-competes.
|
1 / 7 |
Ferguson receives limited credit where it provides practical goods or services used by workers and households, but it is not organized around unemployed people, exits, or broad nonworker power. Linked evidence
|
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and
public obligations.
|
2 / 7 |
Ferguson has practical utility, but the record does not show durable willingness to absorb major losses for workers, customers, suppliers, or communities when doing so conflicts with commercial goals. Linked evidence
|
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
|
3 / 5 |
Ferguson provides widely useful goods or services, while pricing, loyalty, rental, contractor, credit, add-on, or procurement systems still shift power toward the seller. Linked evidence
|
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
|
3 / 5 |
Ferguson sells products or services with real practical utility, but quality, safety, durability, emissions, toxicity, or add-on economics remain important constraints. Linked evidence
|
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
|
2 / 5 |
Ferguson benefits from scale in availability and logistics, but scale also concentrates supply, procurement, customer data, and local market power. Linked evidence
|
Penalties
| Penalty | Applied | Why this penalty |
|---|---|---|
Ecological Harm
?
Footprint, trajectory, irreversibility, culpability, and scale,
including whether ecological harm is central to the model and continued
after credible notice. Range: -30 to 0.
|
-3 |
Ferguson participates in material-intensive retail, rental, industrial supply, logistics, construction, equipment, or vehicle systems with meaningful ecological footprint. Linked evidence
|
Toxic Products
?
Current sale of products whose ordinary use, exposure, ingredients,
residues, packaging, or formulation creates toxic, addictive, or
consumer-safety risk. Food products receive at least light scrutiny for
artificial colors, artificial flavors, petro-derived additives,
pesticide residues, contaminants, endocrine-disrupting packaging, and
ultra-processed formulation. Ordinary adult nightlife or alcohol service
is not penalized by itself without evidence of predatory marketing,
youth targeting, addiction-extractive design, or unusual product-safety
misconduct. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-1 |
Ferguson sells, rents, distributes, or supports product categories that can include chemicals, fuels, solvents, treated materials, pesticides, machinery, batteries, combustion equipment, or other toxic or safety-risk goods. Linked evidence
|
Accountability Opacity
?
Material opacity, reputation laundering, or hidden accountability
structures that prevent public accountability. Range: -2 to 0.
|
-2 |
Ferguson provides basic corporate and privacy disclosures, but ordinary customers cannot easily inspect supplier power, markups, product toxicity, data sharing, rental economics, or environmental costs. Linked evidence
|
Surveillance Capture
?
Invasive surveillance, unreasonably non-optional tracking, facial
recognition, biometric identification, or AI behavior scanning of
customers, workers, bystanders, or the public. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-2 |
Ferguson privacy materials describe collection, sharing, analytics, advertising, app, loyalty, transaction, location, vehicle, biometric, or device data practices. Linked evidence
|
Bonus Credits
No bonus credits applied in this version.
Confidence Basis
Confidence Basis
Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.
High 82/100
25 verified linked claims 13 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 13/13 components covered
This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.
Claim confidence 13/20
25 verified linked claims
Source quality 16/18
Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability
Direct axis-specific claims 14/18
13 direct claims across 13 active components
Dispute load 12/12
0 disputed claims on this entity
Recency 10/10
Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026
Reviewer status 7/12
Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding
Component coverage 10/10
13/13 evidence-bearing components have direct support
Evidence State
Evidence State
Claims and Sources
Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.1Ferguson is controlled through shareholder, private, family, or executive ownership rather than worker, customer, supplier, tenant, renter, or community ownership.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
2Ferguson does not give customers, workers, suppliers, local communities, or affected households binding democratic authority over governance.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
3Ferguson sells useful goods or services through a conventional retail, rental, distribution, or industrial-supply model that routes surplus through owners, executives, or public shareholders.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
4Ferguson appears to rely on ordinary retail, warehouse, delivery, branch, or service employment rather than worker control, co-determination, or durable labor veto power.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
5Ferguson receives limited credit where it provides practical goods or services used by workers and households, but it is not organized around unemployed people, exits, or broad nonworker power.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
6Ferguson has practical utility, but the record does not show durable willingness to absorb major losses for workers, customers, suppliers, or communities when doing so conflicts with commercial goals.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
7Ferguson provides widely useful goods or services, while pricing, loyalty, rental, contractor, credit, add-on, or procurement systems still shift power toward the seller.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
8Ferguson sells products or services with real practical utility, but quality, safety, durability, emissions, toxicity, or add-on economics remain important constraints.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
9Ferguson benefits from scale in availability and logistics, but scale also concentrates supply, procurement, customer data, and local market power.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
10The available public record for Ferguson does not show unusually strong protection for worker, customer, supplier, or public dissent beyond ordinary corporate channels.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
11The available public record for Ferguson does not show unusual civil-liberties protection or constitutional-spirit practice beyond normal commercial compliance.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
12Ferguson receives some credit where the service or product mix gives customers practical value, broad availability, low entry prices, or repair/self-help capacity.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
13Ferguson does not provide unusually clear public cost, margin, markup, fee, rental, or surplus-allocation transparency for ordinary customers.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
14The available public record for Ferguson does not document a rare non-punitive anti-mobbing or anti-scapegoating institutional practice strong enough for this bonus.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
15Any positive conduct by Ferguson is at least partly vulnerable where it depends on private, family, founder, or executive discretion rather than locked stakeholder governance.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
16The available evidence for Ferguson does not describes conduct considered under Human Harmd elsewhere.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
17The available evidence for Ferguson does not show direct institutional coercive violence, detention abuse, armed repression, or violent domination.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
18Ferguson participates in material-intensive retail, rental, industrial supply, logistics, construction, equipment, or vehicle systems with meaningful ecological footprint.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
19Ferguson sells, rents, distributes, or supports product categories that can include chemicals, fuels, solvents, treated materials, pesticides, machinery, batteries, combustion equipment, or other toxic or safety-risk goods.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
20The available evidence for Ferguson does not show a primary business model based on direct youth manipulation or youth-culture monetization.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
21Ferguson retains conduct relevant to the this penalty: where membership, rental add-ons, storage autopay, credit, loyalty, or recurring-payment systems create inertia or cancellation-friction risk.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
22Ferguson provides basic corporate and privacy disclosures, but ordinary customers cannot easily inspect supplier power, markups, product toxicity, data sharing, rental economics, or environmental costs.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
23Ferguson retains conduct relevant to the this penalty: where brand, lifestyle, rural, DIY, pro-contractor, home-design, or moving-self-reliance identity becomes part of the customer capture model.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
24Ferguson privacy materials describe collection, sharing, analytics, advertising, app, loyalty, transaction, location, vehicle, biometric, or device data practices.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
25Ferguson is penalized where ordinary retail, logistics, or distributor language presents commercial and supply-chain choices as neutral necessity while downplaying power, environmental, labor, or data tradeoffs.
- Ferguson company siteGeneral web source · 58%
- Ferguson privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Ferguson SEC filingsPrimary institutional record · 90%
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