Wal-Mart drops 'Black Lives Matter' merchandise after complaint

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has removed some "Black Lives Matter" merchandise from its website after receiving a complaint from the president of the National Fraternal Order of Police, who said in a letter addressed to Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon that the apparel was "offensive."

Wal-Mart said Wednesday it would remove apparel that contained the phrase "Bulletproof" with "Black Lives Matter" underneath. It has not removed other "Black Lives Matter" shirts and sweatshirts.

The shirts and sweatshirts that appeared on Walmart.com were not being sold directly by Wal-Mart, but by third-party vendor Old Glory Merchandise.

"Like other online retailers, we have a marketplace with millions of items offered by third parties that include Blue Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter merchandise," a Wal-Mart spokesman said in an emailed statement. "After hearing concerns from customers, we are removing the specific item with the 'bulletproof' reference."

The retailer's response came a day after Chuck Canterbury, national president of the police advocacy group, expressed his concerns in a letter to McMillon. The Fraternal Order of Police is based in Nashville, Tenn., and is the largest law enforcement labor organization in the U.S. with more than 330,000 members.

Canterbury urged Wal-Mart to prohibit the sale of shirts and sweatshirts that contained the "Bulletproof" and "Black Lives Matter" phrases after receiving reports from members that the retailer was selling the "offensive merchandise."

"I understand that these are third party sales and not Wal-Mart products, but I am concerned that allowing these articles of clothing to be sold in this way will damage your company's good name amongst FOP members and other active and retired law enforcement officers," Canterbury wrote.

Apparel containing the phrase "Bulletproof" could not be found on Walmart.com as of Wednesday afternoon, but the site continued to list Old Glory apparel that contained "Black Lives Matter," "Blue Lives Matter" and "All Lives Matter."

Canterbury wrote in his letter the third-party sellers were "profiting from racial division."

"Commercializing our differences will not help our local police and communities to build greater trust and respect for one another," Canterbury wrote. "Turning a buck on strained relationships will not contribute to the healing process."

Canterbury sent a similar letter to Amazon.com Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, asking the e-commerce giant to remove merchandise containing the phrases "Bulletproof," "Black Lives Matter" and "Hands Up, Don't Shoot."

The police advocacy group posted both letters on social media. Fraternal Order of Police representatives did not respond to a message seeking further comment, but said in a Facebook post late Wednesday afternoon "the FOP certainly supports the First Amendment and we thank Walmart for taking down the inflammatory messages."

Wal-Mart, like most e-commerce retailers, relies on third-party vendors to boost its assortment to keep pace with consumers who are buying more products online.

A spokesman said the company has a prohibited-items policy in place to educate third-party sellers on what is not allowed. Wal-Mart also has manual and automated processes to monitor what is being listed.

While the spokesman said the process is "quite effective," Wal-Mart has rapidly increased the amount of items available on Walmart.com from 8 million to 25 million over a nine-month period.

"There are some things that aren't easily identified up front and we rely on the power of the crowd to tell us when something is there that shouldn't be," the spokesman said.

Business on 12/22/2016

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