Walmart facing another round of boycotts in the wake of DEI rollback protests
L: A group of people belonging to Walmart marches during a Pride Parade in 2022. The company came under fire recently for rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (Getty)
L: A group of people belonging to Walmart marches during a Pride Parade in 2022. The company came under fire recently for rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (Getty)
Shoppers are again being urged to boycott Walmart, after the US retailer suggested they would be raising prices in response to president Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The chain previously faced a boycott after they rolled back their diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies in November, a decision celebrated by right-wing pundit Robby Starbuck, who has been leading an “anti-woke” campaign against various major US brands.
However, pro-DEI groups fought back by staging their own boycotts in an effort to get brands to reinstate the equality initiatives.
‘We’re not backing down’
John Schwarz, from the People’s Union USA, who has organised the latest boycott, urged shoppers to use their power to “hold the line”.
The boycott, set to run until Monday (26 May), covers the stores’ pharmacies and petrol stations, Sam’s Club, and Walmart InHome delivery.
Reacting to the news of possible price hikes, Schwarz claimed: “This is a company that has had a second chance, and a third chance and so on. And what did they do with it? They doubled down on greed.”
“We’re done. We’re organising and we are not backing down… hold the line.”
In a similar move, civil rights activists in Minneapolis launched a national boycott of Target in February after the department store chain axed equality programmes.
Boycotts have been shown to work in the past, with beer brand BudLight suffering a fall in sales after conservatives initiated an “anti-woke” protest against a campaign that featured trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel’s were among other well-known names to crack down on DEI policies in the wake of Trump’s return to the White House and the start of his bid to remove the initiatives and related jobs from within the federal government and the armed forces.
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