public maintenance, repair, and operations distributor
Grainger
Industry Retail
A public distributor selling maintenance, repair, operations, safety, janitorial, electrical, plumbing, and industrial products to businesses and institutions. Grainger is practical infrastructure for repair work, but investor governance, industrial supply-chain footprint, hazardous product categories, and procurement-data capture keep it low-scoring.
Why this matters: Grainger is a major MRO comparator for Fastenal, Ferguson, Home Depot Pro, Lowe's Pro, and industrial supply chains.
Letter grade D Extractive Medium 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 Product Integrity, with the largest penalty coming from Ecological Harm.
Strengths
- Product Integrity3/5
- Extraction2/10
- Market Conduct2/5
Penalties
- Ecological Harm-3
- Toxic Products-2
- Accountability Opacity-2
- Surveillance Capture-2
Evidence state
- ConfidenceMedium 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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.
|
1 / 7 |
Grainger 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.
|
2 / 5 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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.
|
-2 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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 |
Grainger 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.
Medium 78/100
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 12/18
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.1Grainger is controlled through shareholder, private, family, or executive ownership rather than worker, customer, supplier, tenant, renter, or community ownership.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
2Grainger does not give customers, workers, suppliers, local communities, or affected households binding democratic authority over governance.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
3Grainger sells useful goods or services through a conventional retail, rental, distribution, or industrial-supply model that routes surplus through owners, executives, or public shareholders.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
4Grainger appears to rely on ordinary retail, warehouse, delivery, branch, or service employment rather than worker control, co-determination, or durable labor veto power.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
5Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
6Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
7Grainger provides widely useful goods or services, while pricing, loyalty, rental, contractor, credit, add-on, or procurement systems still shift power toward the seller.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
8Grainger sells products or services with real practical utility, but quality, safety, durability, emissions, toxicity, or add-on economics remain important constraints.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
9Grainger benefits from scale in availability and logistics, but scale also concentrates supply, procurement, customer data, and local market power.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
10The available public record for Grainger does not show unusually strong protection for worker, customer, supplier, or public dissent beyond ordinary corporate channels.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
11The available public record for Grainger does not show unusual civil-liberties protection or constitutional-spirit practice beyond normal commercial compliance.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
12Grainger receives some credit where the service or product mix gives customers practical value, broad availability, low entry prices, or repair/self-help capacity.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
13Grainger does not provide unusually clear public cost, margin, markup, fee, rental, or surplus-allocation transparency for ordinary customers.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
14The available public record for Grainger does not document a rare non-punitive anti-mobbing or anti-scapegoating institutional practice strong enough for this bonus.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
15Any positive conduct by Grainger is at least partly vulnerable where it depends on private, family, founder, or executive discretion rather than locked stakeholder governance.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
16The available evidence for Grainger does not describes conduct considered under Human Harmd elsewhere.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
17The available evidence for Grainger does not show direct institutional coercive violence, detention abuse, armed repression, or violent domination.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
18Grainger participates in material-intensive retail, rental, industrial supply, logistics, construction, equipment, or vehicle systems with meaningful ecological footprint.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
19Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
20The available evidence for Grainger does not show a primary business model based on direct youth manipulation or youth-culture monetization.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
21Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
22Grainger provides basic corporate and privacy disclosures, but ordinary customers cannot easily inspect supplier power, markups, product toxicity, data sharing, rental economics, or environmental costs.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
23Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
24Grainger privacy materials describe collection, sharing, analytics, advertising, app, loyalty, transaction, location, vehicle, biometric, or device data practices.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
25Grainger 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.
- Grainger about usOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger privacy policyOfficial self-description · 68%
- Grainger investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
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