Posted on 11/10/2005 1:48:18 AM PST by News Hunter
A Catholic advocacy group has launched a national boycott against Wal-Mart, claiming the world's No. 1 retailer has in effect "banned" Christmas, while promoting other seasonal holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
But Wal-Mart tells WorldNetDaily it has "absolutely not" banned Christmas, but is just "trying to serve all our customers for the holiday season."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Maybe WalMart actually decided to listen to the people that think putting Christmas stuff up in September cheapens the holiday. Honestly the only places that have a valid (ie non-cheapening) reason to put up Christmas stuff in September are craft stores because craft require labor by the buyer after the purchase and they need time to do their stuff before the sane time to be hanging Christmas decorations (day after Thanksgiving).
That's what the seasonal section is for. And it's not just a WalMart thing, it's a standard department store thing. Have a section for things with a limited time of demand window for the stuff that's currently in demand. And if they have a garden section it's usually near there because during spring the garden section is in season and needs more real estate.
I'm not bitching at you at all. I'm saying that seems odd to me. Not smart marketing if it's so because a lot of people browse online then go to buy in the store and if you're stuff is labeled differently on the website than in the store this creates customer confusion that lowers revenue. The only thing in the Christmas Tree section on line that doesn't say Christmas Tree is some metal lawn ornament which also says it's only available online so you couldn't have seen that.
The only point made is that Walmart treats the holiday formally known as "Christmas" as something they fear will offend non-Christians. They feel the need to take you to the "Holiday" page, and admit it.
Unlike you, I don't want politically correct search responses. I don't want their, "Oh, but in case holiday isn't the page you want, you can go to the actual word you were search for".
When you have substance in your replies let me know. As it is (and has been with you this entire thread), you demonstrate your maturity with personal attackds.
As a stock holder, my concern is that Walmart is seeking to appease the pc crowd. Apparently anyone who challenges them for their bad choices in marketing is a Walmart hater.
Why do they bend over to not offend minorities, but gladly seek to reeducate traditionalists?
PC just irks people here at FR. Why can't you see that perspective? Why do you mislead and fabricate? Are you in the Walmart War Room?
I agree with you the response was rude, however, does anyone really know if it is actual WM corporate policy? Or just the words of one individual who may or may not have an axe to grind with someone?
Please do not put words in my mouth.
Challenging a bad choice in a marketing strategy is one thing, bashing is something entirely different. I have seen very little of the former and a great deal of the latter on this thread.
I have yet to understand what the big todo is about this, other than to make the WM haters feel good. And I am not calling you one, just making an observation.
Yes they are.
The walmart search engine has "specific" holidays (Hanukkah and Kwanzaa==even Ramadan gets specific answers).
But Christmas is in their "generic" category. To get to what you want to see you firsthave to pass through their Reeducation Page -- Holiday--then you can actually get to what you want.
I really have to disagree with you.
I think more people would be typing in "Christmas" than anything else and by having that term go to the main "holiday" page makes sense from a marketing standpoint.
Let's face it, although we may not like it, "Christmas season" has basically become a generic term for the vast majority of people to describe the period of time from about now until after the 1st of the year.
The "specific" things that come up for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are just the keyword search results. Christmas brings up a whole section and then you can move past that to just the keyword search results. Christmas is getting the extra treatment of getting a section and keyword while the others are just getting keyword.
But as hard as I can, I cannot go about quietly accepting that Christmas must give way generic greetings for fear of offending non-Christians.
Who is offended by simply going to the "Christmas" page and not first to the Holiday page?
Good marketing can't be the answer, because their biggest demographic in the south and rural areas nationwide, will be Christians.
They seem to be trying to accomodate the political correctness movement, and there are many on this thread who think that is a good thing.
Sorry, you're being logical. That won't work with the person you're responding to. You must bluster and be upset, otherwise you're just anti-christmas.
ah, more obtuseness.
You just don't get it. You are clueless. But you keep prattling on like you're the only one who understands the gravity of this situation.
Sheesh.
Speaking as a software QA person I'd guess that making the section Christmas over and above having Christmas in the keywords of so many items hoses up the search engine. Speaking as a person who used to work in retail it could also be organizational, it's possible they recycle the Holiday section on their website for which ever holiday is prominent at the time in much the way the recylce the seasonal section of their stores.
I don't see any accomodations to PC. The Holiday page has the word Christmas on it 5 times, if they were going PC they'd call them "trees" and "bouquets" not "Christmas trees" and "Christmas bouquets". I don't see anybody on this thread that thinks PC Christmas is a good thing, I see lots of people on this thread that look at the WalMart page and don't see any PCing.
The note was from a Wal-Mart representative and has similarities to a note I received when I wrote them. I think it is their new policy. It's possible that it was just very poorly articulated by this one employee. But the original facts are easily verified at their website.
While you are happy to have that choice be a "special" splash page, others are not.
The content of that marketing choice could just as easily be a "Christmas" splash page, but, as you attest elsewhere in this thread, the Walmart marketers want to appeal to other than Christians by using a generic phrase.
In other words, they are attempting to appease everyone--but in the game of political correctness Christians don't win.
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