Criticism of Walmart - Product Selection

Product Selection

Walmart's product selection has been criticized by some groups in the past, primarily as viewed as a promotion of a particular ideology or as a response to its original rural, religious and conservative target market. In 2003, Walmart removed certain men's magazines from its shelves, such as Maxim, FHM, and Stuff, citing customer complaints regarding their racy content. Later that year, it decided to partly obscure the covers of Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Redbook on store shelves due to "customer concerns", and refused to stock an issue of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit special because it took exception to one photograph. It has also refused to sell the December 2011 issue of WWE Magazine due to its controversial cover depicting The Rock doused with fire.

Since 1991, Walmart also has not carried music albums marked with the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA's) Parental Advisory Label (contradictory to the allowance of R-rated movies and video games rated Mature), although it carries edited versions of such albums, with obscenities removed or overdubbed with less offensive lyrics. In one example in 2005, Walmart rejected the original cover of country singer Willie Nelson's reggae album, Countryman, which featured marijuana leaves, in an apparent pro-marijuana statement. To satisfy Walmart, the record label, Lost Highway Records, issued the album with an alternative cover, without recalling the original cover. Walmart has never carried Marilyn Manson albums, solely because of the controversy surrounding the group, but recently began selling Nine Inch Nails albums after rejecting them for years. In fact, some albums that do not carry "Parental Advisory" stickers, include profanities and are not edited. Such albums include Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. In 2009 Green Day refused to make an edited version of their album 21st Century Breakdown for Walmart, with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong claiming "You feel like you're in 1953 or something", thus the album is not carried by Walmart stores. However, Walmart's policy on carrying albums with the Parental Advisory Label seems to vary by country, as albums containing the label can be found in Canadian Walmart stores, for example.

In 1999, Walmart announced that it would not stock emergency contraception pills in its pharmacies, not citing any particular reasons except for a "business decision" that was made earlier. The move was criticized by family planning advocates, citing that women in small towns where Walmart pharmacies had little competition would have greater difficulties in obtaining the drug. The decision was challenged in 2006, as three Massachusetts women filed suit against the company after they were unable to purchase emergency contraception at their local Walmart stores, resulting in a ruling that required Walmart to stock the drug in all of its pharmacies in Massachusetts. Expecting that other states would soon do the same, Walmart reversed its policy and announced that it would begin to stock the drug nationwide, while at the same time maintaining its conscientious objection policy, allowing any Walmart pharmacy employee who does not feel comfortable dispensing a prescription to refer customers to another pharmacy.

Walmart has also been criticized for selling some controversial products. For example, in 2004 Walmart carried the anti-Semitic hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its online catalogue. The Jewish civil rights organization Anti-Defamation League wrote to the President of Walmart on September 2008 noting the text, "has been the major weapon in the arsenals of anti-Semites around the world," and called on Walmart to, "unequivocally state the nature of the book and to disassociate itself from any endorsement of it." Walmart stopped selling the book shortly thereafter.

In October 2004, Walmart canceled its order for The Daily Show's America (The Book) after discovering a page that depicts each US Supreme Court judge nude. A week later, it returned copies of comedian George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, with a cover recreating The Last Supper with Jesus' seat empty and Carlin (an avowed atheist) seated next to it. The company claimed that the copies were shipped to it by mistake and a Walmart spokeswoman said she did not "believe this particular product would appeal" to its customer base.

In January 2006, Walmart was criticized for the recommendation system on its website which suggested that some black-related DVDs, such as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and documentaries on Baptist minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. were similar to the Planet of the Apes television series DVD box set. It quickly corrected the page, saying that it was a software glitch, but ultimately blamed the matter on human error.

A December 2007 report published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (a non-governmental agency), revealed that some furniture sold at Walmart was made from wood which had been illegally logged in protected Russian habitats for Siberian tigers and other wildlife. This led the company to investigate its suppliers and promise to eliminate products made from illegal wood by 2013. They also joined the Global Forest & Trade Network, an organization that is dedicated to eliminating illegal logging.