Walmart will stop selling Confederate flag merchandise
Soon, customers won't be able to look to Walmart for all of their Confederate battle flag needs.
The retailer announced Monday that it will no longer sell merchandise featuring the flag, MSNBC reports. The company sells Confederate flag reproductions, T-shirts, belt buckles, decals, and other items on walmart.com, but those days are numbered. "We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," Walmart said in a statement. "We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the Confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our website. We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances."
The move comes after a gunman shot dead nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, last week. Photos have been released of the alleged shooter with the Confederate flag, and earlier on Monday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) called for the flag to be removed from outside the state capitol building.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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