Walmart apologizes for 'fat girl' costumes

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Walmart found itself sending apology tweet after apology tweet Monday after the Twitterverse raked it over the coals for a major goof on its website.

For whatever inexplicable reason, the retail giant's site featured a Halloween category, titled "Fat Girl Costumes."

You won't find it there now, thank goodness, but it stayed there for a large part of the morning -- and long enough for multiple screen grabs.

The presence of the category was first reported by Jezebel, which in turn was alerted by a reader who stumbled upon it while looking for costumes.

FULL story AND video at link.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/living/walmart-costume-controversy/

[lark]

1. OMG

How tasteless. That company is run by morans (intentional misspelling).

[unblock]

2. poorly. the fix included "have a monstrously big halloween"

http://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/walmart-makes-big-fat-online-mistake-and-then-it-gets-worse.html

...

Well, at least things couldn't get worse, could they? Uh, actually, yes, they could. I had been asked by another editor to cover the story (not the marketing and business implications) the same afternoon. And when I looked, the fat girl costumes section was replaced by "Women's Plus Size Halloween Costumes." However, at the top of the page was a new banner that read: "Make it a monstrously big Halloween for less."

Really, did no one have a lick of common sense? A phrase like that on a plus-size targeted site would be bad enough. After the nonsense earlier in the day, it is an outrageously dumb oversight that, as of 4:30 p.m. on Monday, was still visible.

Walmart apologized for the slight, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. "This never should have been on our site in the first place," a spokesperson told them. "It's unacceptable that it appeared, and we apologize."

But an apology that has such an unfortunate fix is emptier than no apology at all. Here's a simple rule for when your company plants its collective foot deep into the muck: Find out what happened and make sure you follow up and actually look at the fix. Don't just trust whatever someone happens to tell you. See what your customers see. Your reputation is on the line, and it's too easy to slip from bad to worse.

[LynneSin]

3. Seriously this is what they are going to apologize over?

I'm hardly upset.

How about they apologize for the crappy wages they pay their employees because their business ran all the decent paying stores out of business.

That would be a much better start.

[SunSeeker]

4. +1

[MADem]

5. I would not be surprised if the web page was constructed by some underpaid "bro" who found that kind

of language amusing. He probably intended it as a placeholder and forgot to remove it.

I doubt this was a management decision by senior leadership at Walmart, but it does suggest a lack of oversight and quality at the lower end of the spectrum. I guess when you pay "Always Low Wages !" you get what you pay for...!

[Elmergantry]

6. I can understand the sensitivity.

As a child my fragile ego was kept intact thanks to the "husky" size labeled jeans instead of "chunky boy" size...

[tabasco]

8. LOL!

Ahhh yes, the husky size.

[adirondacker]

7. The Walmart Logo is So fitting.

Assholes.