June 23--Retail giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Sears Holding Corp. said they would stop selling Confederate flags and flag merchandise following South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's call to remove the flag from the state Capitol grounds.
Wal-Mart said Monday it would remove all merchandise promoting the Confederate flag from its stores and website.
"We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell," Wal-Mart spokesman Brian Nick said in a statement. "Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly. This is one of those instances.
"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer," he said.
Sears said in a statement Monday night that it was removing Confederate flag merchandise from its Sears and Kmart stores, as well as online, including items sold by third-party merchants on Sears Marketplace.
Online marketplace EBay also said it would prohibit Confederate flags and many items containing the image of the flag because "it has become a contemporary symbol of divisiveness and racism," company spokeswoman Johnna Hoff said in a statement.
"This decision is consistent with our long-standing policy that prohibits items that promote or glorify hatred, violence and racial intolerance," she said.
Civil rights leaders have called on Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos to follow the lead of Wal-Mart and Sears and stop sales of the Confederate flag.
"Amazon now has an opportunity to again prove it is a good corporate citizen and join with other major retailers, business leaders and elected officials that now call for an end to sales and displays of a symbol that stands for hate and bigotry," Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson said in a statement.
Amazon did not comment, but by Tuesday afternoon, many Confederate flags were listed as unavailable on the site. The top three best-selling items over the past 24 hours had been Confederate flags, with the top item up 5,466%.
Other retailers also saw sales of the Confederate flag spike.
Kerry McCoy, owner of flagandbanner.com in Arkansas, said the site sold 50 lapel pins of the Confederate flag Monday and sales were increasing Tuesday afternoon. Normally, Confederate flag sales make up less than 1% of business, McCoy said.
"Not everybody that uses the Confederate flag is doing it for hate," she said. "Some of them have a family member that fought in that war. I'm not going to deny one sector of Americans the right to fly the flag of their choice."
At least one flag manufacturer said it would stop making Confederate flags.
"Unfortunately, sometimes it takes an event like this to kind of focus you on doing the right thing," said Reggie Vandenbosch, vice president of sales at Valley Forge Flag Co.
BMW, which is one of South Carolina's largest employers and has its largest manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, said it "applauds the courage" of Haley and "supports her leadership" in calling for the Confederate flag to be removed from the grounds of the Statehouse.
While running for her second term in 2014, Haley, a Republican, defended the Confederate flag's presence on the Statehouse grounds. Her Democratic challenger, Vincent Sheheen, called for the flag's removal.
"I think the people of South Carolina are tired of having an image across America that's not truly who we are," Sheheen said during a debate.
Haley responded that the flag was a "sensitive issue," but she rejected the idea of removing it.
"What I can tell you is over the last three and a half years, I spent a lot of my days on the phones with CEOs and recruiting jobs to this state," Haley said. "I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag."
UPDATES
1:17 p.m.: This article has been updated with details about products on Amazon.com and quotes from flag sellers.
10:52 a.m.: This article has been updated with comments from representatives of EBay and flag manufacturers.
8:41 a.m.: This article has been updated throughout with additional details.
This article was originally published at 7 a.m.
