Walmart to stop selling Confederate flag merchandise

[ariesgem]

Source: CNN

Walmart, the country's largest retailer, will remove all Confederate flag merchandise from its stores, the company told CNN Monday.

The announcement is the latest indication that the flag, a symbol of the slave-holding South, has become toxic in the aftermath of a shooting last week at a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley announced in a Monday afternoon news conference that she supports removing the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds.

Walmart.com currently carries the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag's design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles.

"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment -- whether in our stores or on our web site," said Walmart spokesman Brian Nick. "We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly -- this is one of those instances."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/confederate-flag-walmart-south-carolina/

[luvspeas]

1. SO NOW THAT THEY HAVE MADE THE MONSTER...

they want to play the hero with the pitchfork. fuck you.

[tridim]

2. China should stop making Confederate flag merchandise.

Cut it all off.

Let the racists make their own shit to celebrate their disgusting traditions.

[lastlib]

30. (I wonder if there is a way.....

...to ban the importation of merchandise with the Confederate flag on it......Hmmmmm......)

[LiberalElite]

3. Considering how widespread

Walmart is in the South this is a big deal, no? I'm gonna give credit where it's due.

[R Merm]

4. Wow, that will bite into their sales, might even bring down their stock price.

[rurallib]

19. they will cut wages for the low paid workers to make up the difference

what Wally calls a win-win

[Jefferson23]

5. Finally...it only took how long and how many deaths? Bad for business, eh?

Fuckers.

[jwirr]

6. I attender a wedding on Saturday and at the dance that evening I saw a young man with a

confederate flag on his belt. I was furious and did not bother to hide it. He saw me staring at it and stepped away. I looked for him later and he was gone. I think he got the message. I was one of the elders there and he knew he had crossed the line.

[AwareOne]

7. Next they should remove the American flag

because of our nation being founded on slavery, the massacres, the illegal wars the genocide of native Americans the, oh , wait, I forgot, our indignation only goes back to 1861. Never mind. Three cheers for Old Glory!

[cui bono]

18. So what do you suggest? We dissolve our nation?

Or hand it over to Native Americans? What is a realistic move that you think we should take?

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

20. I think he just thinks we need a new flag for the times. I suggest:

[gordianot]

29. For the most part Pirates were not racist they respected talent and they did not cheat other Pirates

They also shared many of the same symbols of the Masons and operated much like a guild.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

33. I was referring to our plundering republican officials - the plunder of America.

We are also the international Pirates of the planet.

[gordianot]

34. The Pirates of old also plundered they also had a code of ethics.

Republican plunderers have no real code of ethics they are far lower on the scale than those raided the seven seas preying on other thieves and murderers.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

37. Agreed!

[Va Lefty]

8. Walmart=the devil

not sure what to make of this. I bet they're selling them again by end of July. Not like the Waltons to leave money on the table.

[63splitwindow]

9. Cheer good things!

Positive reinforcement for positive moves.

[GP6971]

10. Yeah sure

"Items make their way into our assortment improperly"

If that was true, they wouldn't have carried them in the first place. Taking the moral high ground? BS.

[jtuck004]

12. Which takes the eyes right off what the workers are being paid to sell them. Good job!

""We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer" -

A true humanitarian.



But sending mom or dad home without enough to feed the kids,pay the rent, make any kind of life -- who could possibly be offended by that?

[kimbutgar]

13. They're doing this for publicity

What they should do is raise the wages and benefit of the employees. Best publicity they can get and I would shop there.

[dobleremolque]

14. Thanks Wal-Mart!

Let me give praise where praise is due, but that's all you're gonna get.

You won't see any of my money until your exploitative business model changes and your employees don't have to supplement their meager wages with welfare payments.

[beachbum bob]

15. time to get all retailers as well as the online ones to do the same, especially Amazon

just sent email to amazon demanding they remove items as well.....time to shame the sellers as well as the buyers of this crap

[SunSeeker]

22. Great idea!

[Mnemosyne]

16. They will probably open a new store specifically to sell that shit. nt

[happyslug]

17. I remember in the 1970s the last War Surplus store in Downtown Pittsburgh selling KKK items

When I was a teen, the store was surviving in a poor part of downtown Pittsburgh. I think it is long gone, but for years it was the place to get your KKK items. Did a thriving business, from all of the African Americans from the near by Hill District who bought them as gag gifts. I can NOT remember a single white even thinking about buying one, but the owner said he had a steady steam of customers from the Hill District of Pittsburgh.

[dflprincess]

24. Recently retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, Alan Page,

(also a former MN Viking) has an extensive collection of Jim Crow items. I remember seeing him on a local station showing some of it. Not all of it is related directly to what we think of when we hear "Jim Crow" but harkens to a time when it seems most people were thoughtlessly racist. It is interesting and awful to see

[SunSeeker]

21. Good. nt

[Change has come]

23. This must dry up a huge percentage of this hateful merchanise.

What other stores sell this shit?

[cstanleytech]

25. To bad. First because I dont object to them selling shit like that...........after all

people want to buy that kinda shit so be it but the 2nd and main reason is seeing someone wearing, carrying or driving around displaying it was an excellent asshole detection device.

[vkkv]

26. Perhaps they can start selling the WHITE FLAG of SURRENDER, that would be more accurate n/t

[Initech]

27. Wow Wal-Mart does the right thing for once!

[ybbor]

28. Good!

I'll still never give them a dime though.

[OakCliffDem]

31. Next step is to get WalMart to stop selling merchandise. n/t

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

32. What about all those Confederate flag t-shirts ...

... that are currently on boats from China?

[Paladin]

35. In the long run, I think this is more significant than Nikki Haley's announcement.

Haley's decision about a single flag reeked of political expediency to me; it felt like a means of staving off imagined Ferguson-like unrest. But Walmart bowing out of the racist symbolism game? That's a real step forward.

[Sancho]

36. Oh no, one stop shopping for the Confederate flag, guns, and truck nuts going down!!

[candelista]

38. All this excitement about a 150 year old symbol of a failed state.

Don't we have more important things to get upset about?