Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is among a growing number of retailers that said they will remove Confederate flag merchandise from stores and its e-commerce sites in the wake of last week’s shooting rampage in South Carolina.
“We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer,” Brian Nick, a spokesman for Wal-Mart said. “We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the Confederate flag from our assortment -- whether in our stores or on our website.”
CEO Doug McMillon said he too, was surprised to see some of the merchandise sold on Walmart.com by third party marketers.
“We don’t want to sell anything that offends people,” McMillon told Bloomberg on Monday (June 22). “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims and people of Charleston.”
Sears, Ebay and Amazon all followed suit saying they would no longer sell confederate flag merchandise.
“We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell,” Wal-Mart’s Nick said in the statement. “Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly -- this is one of those instances.”