Walmart said it won’t be making any changes to its LGBTQ-friendly merchandise in honor of Pride Month — even as rival Target has pulled some of its Pride collection from stores in the face of a customer backlash.
“We have merchandise that we sell all year that supports different groups,” Walmart Chief Merchandising Officer Latriece Watkins said Wednesday. “In this particular case, we haven’t changed anything in our assortment.”
Minneapolis-based Target has removed some items from its collection for Pride Month, saying threats from irate customers made workers feel unsafe.
But Watkins said Walmart stores hadn’t experienced any threats over its Pride-themed merchandise.
“In this particular case, when we think about security …we have not done anything in particular differently related to security in our stores,” the marketing officer said.
Walmart — which boasts more than 4,500 locations nationwide — has released clothing bearing similar messages to those that have generated controversy at Target, including T-shirts that say “Some people are gay. Get over it,” “gay AF” and woke up gay again.”
Onesies for infants, meanwhile, boast sayings like “proud love,” “I love my 2 moms” and “love will win.”
Walmart also has a whole collection of LGBTQ-friendly trinkets and accessories as part of its “Pride & Joy” collection, which includes flags, pins, tote bags, clothes for dogs and more.
One woman took to TikTok to share a sarcastic video of herself shopping for Pride-themed clothes for her baby at Walmart.
On a rack with clothes for infants aged zero to 12 months, she pulls out a onesie that says “proud love” with a sticker saying the garment is made for infants and is “gender inclusive.”
Another rack was full of infant-sized rompers that say “love wins.”
“Oh, there’s even one for me,” the woman adds sneeringly before showing an adult T-shirt that says “proud parent” with a similar sticker marking the shirt as “gender inclusive.”
The Post has reached out to Walmart.
The TikTok, which garnered more than 230,000 views in less than a week, was also posted to Twitter, where one user questioned if “this [is] actually Walmart, or just a bit?”
Another user replied: “They didn’t see Target lose 9 billion over this?”
Target, which has been the victim of a 14-day boycott over its Pride Month collection, dubbed “PRIDE,” has seen its stock lose a whopping $13.8 billion as of Wednesday.
Shares of the embattled “cheap chic” chain sank 2.2% to $130.93 on Wednesday after dropping for eight straight sessions — the stock’s longest losing streak since November 2018 — giving the company a market capitalization of $60.4 billion.
That’s off 19% from two weeks earlier on May 18, when the stock was trading at $160.96 on the eve of the crisis.
It’s also the lowest levels Target shares have hit since the company was recovering from the depths of the pandemic in mid-2020.
The ongoing losses are the result of an ongoing boycott that was triggered by Target’s release of “PRIDE,” an LGBTQ-friendly line that includes clothing for children and “tuck-friendly” women’s swimwear with “extra crotch coverage.”
Last week, a Target spokesperson said the retailer would be making a nationwide “adjustment” to its Pride collection because of disgruntled customers’ violent confrontations with workers.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” the Target spokesperson said. ”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
Target declined to say whether it will remove “tuck-friendly” women’s swimsuits, which allow trans women who have not had gender-affirming operations to conceal their private parts.
It was also unclear if the retailer would pull any of its Pride-themed merch for children from its shelves, which Target has been harshly criticized for selling as a way to groom children.
Wall Street is worried that Target will suffer the same fate as Anheuser-Busch, whose Bud Light sales have fallen by more than 25% since the brand tapped transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote the beer on April 1.
“Investors are concerned that Target may be experiencing a sales decline because it’s alienated some of its core customers,” said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough.
Investors are selling their shares on the “assumption that Target might have to lower its earnings guidance because its sales and profitability has been impacted,” Yarbrough said, adding that sales could suffer for the next nine to 12 months.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
