BENTONVILLE, Ark. – In a move that may be emulated by retailers in all channels nationwide, including convenience stores, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp said they would stop selling products bearing the Confederate flag, a week after a white gunman shot nine people dead at a historically black church in South Carolina, reported Reuters.
The move by the major retailers came the same day South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called on lawmakers to take down the flag, considered by many people to be a symbol of slavery and racism, at the state capitol.
The accused gunman posed with the flag in photos online. Supporters, who fly the flag or wear it on clothing, see it as a symbol of the South's history and culture, as well a memorial to the Confederate casualties during the Civil War.
A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the company does not want to offend anyone with the products it offers. "We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment—whether in our stores or on our website," Brian Nick said in a statement obtained by the news agency.
Sears, which operates Sears and Kmart stores, does not sell Confederate flags at its stores and has decided to remove sales of such merchandise by third parties on its online marketplace, spokesperson Chris Brathwaite said.
“We are in the process of scrubbing our marketplace to pull those items down,” he told Reuters.
Vice president and group editor Mitch Morrison addressed the issue of race in the convenience-store industry in his June 2015 column in CSPmagazine. Click here to read the editorial.
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