Posted on 11/09/2005 11:50:22 AM PST by big'ol_freeper
WAL-MART BANS CHRISTMAS:
BOYCOTT LAUNCHED
A woman who recently complained to Wal-Mart that the store was replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” received an e-mail response from Customer Service. It appears below in its exact form:
“Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than ‘christmas’ which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with ‘christmas’ red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.”
To which Catholic League president Bill Donohue says: “This statement was signed by someone called Kirby. When I read it, I thought he might be drunk. But I was wrong. We sent Kirby’s response to Wal-Mart’s headquarters only to find that Dan Fogleman, Senior Manager, Public Relations, agrees. After acknowledging that he read Kirby’s response, Fogleman said, in part, the following”:
“As a retailer, we recognize some of our customers may be shopping for Chanukah or Kwanza gifts during this time of year and we certainly want these customers in our stores and to feel welcome, just as we do those buying for Christmas. As an employer, we recognize the significance of the Christmas holiday among our family of associates…and close our stores in observance, the only day during the year that we are closed.”
Bill Donohue says: “It’s nice to know that Wal-Mart is closed on a federal holiday. Now here is why I am asking the leaders of 126 religious organizations that span seven religious communities to boycott Wal-Mart. Go to its website and search for Hanukkah and up come 200 items. Click on Kwanzaa and up come 77. Click on Christmas, and here’s what you get: ‘We’ve brought you to our ‘Holiday’ page based on your search.’ In other words, Wal-Mart is practicing discrimination.”
What a bunch of bull. I'm a Christian (your typical hard-drinking Epicopalian now on the outs with my own church for its shennanigans). I just looked at the link, and the secondary link which reveals bunches of Christmas items. I also searched for kwanza and hanukkah and looked at those results. I'm not offended.
Is this a Catholic League diversionary tactic to take the heat off that Church's internal problems?
To quote John Stossel, "give me a break!"
I just saw a article complaining that you have things listed for Kwanzaa (77 items) and Hanukkah (200 items), but not for Christmas (We've brought you to our "Holiday " page based on your search). Since I don't always believe what I read on the internet I went to your on-line page and sure enough that is correct. Since when is it OK to discriminate against Christians for our holiday of Christmas. How is our holiday any less important than Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Either list holiday for everyone ones holiday - or list Christmas for what it is! We, who believe in Jesus Christ, have no less rights! Jean
As I said I will let you know if there is a response. Maybe if enough of us complain it will change their policy - it has been known to happen especially on free republic!
You are correct. Doesn't make it right, but it is reality.
Saw this on John Gibson today. I, too, thought someone was drunk, just not me. Though, I rightly predicted, the employee who wrote the letter wouldn't be an employee for very long, even with initial backing-up by the honchos.
So, let Wal Mart pay more if it wishes. It doesn't have to try to control every other business.
They said the investigation involved allegations that subcontractors for the world's largest retailer had recruited illegal immigrants, mainly eastern European nationals, to work on cleaning crews at Wal-Mart stores. Many of those arrested were coming off night cleaning shifts at various Wal-Mart locations.
Arrests have been made in 21 states, with most of those coming in Pennsylvania and Texas, officials said.
The other states are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The latest arrests stemmed from two prior investigations by federal immigration officials involving contractors and Wal-Mart stores, one in 1998 and the other in 2001, a law enforcement official told Reuters.
"Wal-Mart uses many third-party contractors for cleaning services, and we do require all workers to be legal. We are talking to the INS and we are cooperating with them," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber told CNN/Money.
"If a company knowingly hires illegal workers, it can be penalized up to $10,000 per person," Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Reuters.
Federal law enforcement officials told CNN that information from an undercover investigation revealed that some Wal-Mart executives and store managers allegedly knew about the immigration violations>
My friend owned a successful cleaning service for banks and other secure businesses before 9/11 (I reference to the dates above). She was very cautious, and very thorough to screen all the backgrounds of those she hired, paid an excellent wage and had little turnover (often there would be a reference involved for the next hiree ); but when she did, she would always check their backgrounds. That area had a very high number of Hispanic population. She had clients who demanded the most careful screening of job applicants. She would call the state [Illinois] to verify their ss# numbers and would be told that was information they could not be handed out.[That has since changed] You can't just look at an Hispanic person and decide because they are working in this type of service oriented-job, they are illegals as you cannot look at a person with no prior offenses and determin he or she will act in a sexual harassment capacity after hired.
Wal-mart employs close to one million employees;of course abuses will pop up here and there considering the numbers involved and the easy target it is. It's also the number one most sued retailer in the United States. (of course). Wal-Mart has always cooperated with investigations fully(let's be fair-sort of like Bush and friends). National Organization for Women NOW is one group that charges "allegations" of sexual harassment and calls them a Merchant of Shame. There are many activist groups that follow suit.
One Million workers! Let's just replace all human workers at Wal-Mart with robots aka robotic technology and fire all humans. Think we could do that in Government as well? hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I will not join the boycott for those reasons. Also remember as I said 10% of goods come from China. Let supply and demand dictate who buys what in this country. Neither you nor I should dictate the way the next person spends his or her OWN money.
Hey, if I see gross misconduct on the part of top level executives, then they step down or the Board fires them for the good of the SHAREHOLDERS.(Afterthought: I think I am in one of my mutual funds, although I am not a dyed in the wool Wal-Mart shopper).Therefore, I will not boycott the loss of jobs of one million workers.
A number of years ago, my wife and I decided to do something different. Instead of a Christmas tree, we have a manger scene as the focus of the holiday decorating at our house. When we place presents on the floor near it and around it we remember the kings of the Orient bringing their gifts for the newborn King. Works for us.
Also, just so you know, I don't go around telling all our friends at church and such that they shouldn't have a Christmas tree because you can trace the roots of decorating trees to pagan customs. I'm not a total freak.....yet. :-)
Here is the e-mail they sent today:
Thank you for your message.
Thank you for your inquiry.
Wal-Mart recognizes Christmas, as well as many other traditional holidays. As you visit our website, you'll discover we have nearly 8,000 Christmas items being offered for sale. (Just search the word Christmas.)
The winter months are filled with holidays -- from Thanksgiving through New Year's and including Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and others that are celebrated by many of our 130 million customers who shop our stores each week and our family of 1.3 million associates. We want the holiday season to be special for everyone, regardless of which holidays they celebrate.
We do not have a written policy that requires associates to say Happy Holidays, however it is something we have instructed our stores to say when answering the phone, for example, and our marketing signs also say Holiday Savings. This is because we include all Holidays during the Holiday season, not just Christmas. This includes Thanksgiving, Dia de Los Muertos, Dia de Virgin de Guadalupe, Los Posadas, Christmas Eve, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, New Years Eve, New Years, etc. We are a country of immense diversity and we want to ensure that we are welcoming customers with an inclusive greeting which would be appreciated by people of all backgrounds.
After reviewing suggestions received from our customers, we have changed certain search results on our retail web site. When visitors to walmart.com enter the word "Christmas" in the home page search bar, they will be directly linked to over 7,900 Christmas items. This search function mirrors the search process for all other holidays, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
We hope this change will further welcome customers of all faiths, and celebrants of all holidays to walmart.com.
Thank you,
Customer Relations
I forwarded this story to SNOPES.COM to ask if it had been authenticated.. The story is true, but the boycott has ended. The full account of the actions, and WALMART'S reponse to Snopes inquiry can be found here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/walmart.asp .
It's worth a read.
Just wanted to pass this along.
A local book store is promoting the new film against Wal-Mart. I went in today and asked if they would be promoting Wal-Mart's film and did they know that like in Michael Moore's film there are inaccuracies throughout. I asked if they would also be promoting the Wal-Mart movie being produced and written by ex-campaigners from Dean, Kerry, Bush etc. to counter Greenwald's film. He stared at me with a blank look.
I was respectful and also mentioned I would not shop in a store where their purpose is to tell me where to shop and where not to shop and be promoting a film that was filled with "lies". I had gone in to purchase a book but said I would no longer be a customer. They have the write to promote anything they want to promote and I have the right to shop anywhere I wish to shop. The person was a "long time" employee but not the owner.
The public library in fact was promoting this film to be shown there this month through a group called Maine's Peace and Justice. He replied they were not promoting the film; therefore, I responded: then why the big sidewalk sign you actually have to walk around and why the fliers pasted all over the counter. He said the owner was the librarian. I said well if you are not promoting the film and the library is why is it not in front of the library up the street where the film is to be held?
I said I appreciated him listening to my view and wished him a good day. Then I went and spent the money that would have gone for the autographed book by a famous author within to a store across the street.
They lost a sale. I just have a real problem with someone telling me where to shop even though I am not a big customer of Wal-Mart.
Incidentally, a Wal-Mart is coming to town and most are not threatened by its arrival it is a bustling town also a tourist haven in the summers. It will bring many jobs to this small town in Maine where "livng is not cheap" and "where big business has been discouraged" but taxes are some of the highest in the country. The Democarts have been in control for going on 30 years.
Peace and Justice (exact national name recognition I may be a little off on), an activist Left Wing group has often used the public library for its agenda. Incidentally Snowe and Collins, part of The Gang are the State Senators.
The story is not true. The news ran the story last night. I read Wal-Mart's press release and Snopes.com never had the full story on this controversy as it was still unfolding. The person who was an employee and was quoted was terminated. They will answer the phones with Happy Holidays as it incompasses all the holidays from Thanksgiving through into the New Year. However you can search on Christmas and will be selling all Christmas goods. They have not told anyone to not wish customers a very Merry Christmas.
The Catholic League I am very surprised at for not following up on the accuracy of this story.
Snopes is not always accurate.
I am NOT a X-TIAN, and I for one could care less if they say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or anything else, or nothing at all. I think every Wal-mart employee should be able to wish anyone whatever it is they wish. You shouldn't force someone who is not X-TIAN to wish someone Merry Christmas, when they do not believe in Christmas.
As for the origins of Christmas which were given in the "e-mail", they are perfectly correct. The only reason anyone might say that they are not, is because either they have not educated themselves extensively on the subject, or they adhere to a faith which does not want people to discover the truth. Christmas was adapted to the X-TIAN faith by Crusaders who were converting so-called "pagans" (or anyone who was not X-TIAN) to their own faith, or killing them if they would not. They discovered they were just killing too many because these people did not want to convert, and decided if they converted the "pagan" holidays into X-TIAN holidays held at about the same time, and made up their own story to support it (ie: the birth of Jesus), Easter - which also originated from a "pagan" holiday(the resurrection of Jesus), etc... people would convert to X-TIAN to keep from getting killed, because they could celebrate the holiday anyway they wanted to, as long as when someone asked, it was called Christmas. so... :P
it's all BS, and the only reason X-TIANs care is because they think the entire world needs to believe exactly what they believe, or else they're wrong, and they're not good people.
if they advertised them as Yule trees, noone would know what they were.... the X-TIANS have warped this world for so long, people don't remember their own roots!!
We are finally starting to educate ourselves on our OWN distant pasts. I say HOORAH!!
If you read the link, you'd see it agrees with your synopsis...however, they claim the story is true. And you do too with your 4th sentence. Not sure where the disagreement is here. I've always found Snopes to be informative and upfront in terms of what they can and can not verify. If your news program has more to the story perhaps they too could email Snopes with the information in hand and have that authenticated. It took exactly 1 day for them to respond to me. Out of the hundreds of emails they recieve each day, I found getting a response at all, quite impressive. Shoot an email over to Snopes with the extra info..perhaps some characterization at their site could use additional clarity.
While I'm not a shopper of WalMart, I am concerned and will boycott, any store that shuts Christians and the celebration of Christmas, out. I will help spread the word, if the word is fact. But, there have been hundreds of reckless rumors targeted at business for purely political reasons that have been completely fabricated, and I want no part of being a tool spreading misinformation.
If Snopes is carrying an agenda here, I've never seen it. If you have information to the contrary, I would most definitely like to know. If Snopes credibility is questionable, then lay the facts out.
7964 items found for “christmas”
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/search-ng.gsp?search_redirect=false&dept=0&search_query=christmas
Just for reference on Wal-Mart in general:
http://www.walmartfacts.com/newsdesk/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1518917/posts?q=1&&page=351
Post #391 Christmas Carols
The latest controversy involving Wal-Mart has given us this little gem that we've preserved in posterity. Meet the latest addition to the lineup of "Down & Out in Bentonville."
Kirby
STATUS: OUT
DATE: 11/11/05
POSITION: Customer Service
The most talked about Wal-Mart employee to get the boot this holiday season is only known to the public by his first name, Kirby. Kirby nearly touched off a boycott by the Catholic League when he wrote back a truly bizarre response to a customer's complaint about Wal-Mart's unfair treatment of Christmas on the store's website.
“Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than ‘christmas’ which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with ‘christmas’ red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.”
It is a wide world indeed, but not wide enough for Kirby's shamanistic missives to customers. Wal-Mart promptly fired Kirby and issued a series of apologies and changes to the company's website to quell the controversy
http://walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/christmas_controversy/
Catholic League Calls Off Wal-Mart Boycott
By KELLY P. KISSEL, Associated Press Writer
Friday, November 11, 2005
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/11/financial/f115054S92.DTL&feed=rss.business
We sincerely apologize to any person or organization that was offended by the inappropriate and inflammatory comments made by this former associate," Fogleman said.
Fogleman said employees will continue to wish people "Happy Holidays" because the greeting is more inclusive. (Thanksgiving through New Years, but no one has "been ordered" to say Happy Holidays.
Donohue said the practice, though "dumb," was never part of his group's complaint.
"We only trigger boycotts when we've been grossly offended," he said.
Happy Holidays to you JesseJane. (all of them) ;)
...The American Family Association (AFA) agrees with Bill O'Reilly that
there is an "anti-Christian bias" in America, and that it is more
evident during the Christmas season than at any other time of the year.
That is one factor in the pro-family organization's call today (Nov. 17)
for a Thanksgiving weekend boycott of Target, one of the retailers
identified by the Fox News commentator as avoiding the use of "Merry
Christmas" in its holiday advertising and in-store promotions. In
addition, says an AFA press release, Target has banned Salvation Army
kettles -- the familiar "red kettles" and bell-ringers -- from
collecting donations at their store entrances. AFA contacted its
supporters in early October, encouraging them to bypass Target outlets
when shopping; and according to recent financial reports, it has been
effective. "According to USA Today, Target told investors that
projected sales at stores open a year in November would miss the
estimated 4 percent to 6 percent growth," states AFA chairman Donald E.
Wildmon. "On Tuesday [Nov. 15], Target's shares dropped $4.13 to $54.30
-- a 7 percent decrease." Thanksgiving weekend is typically the busiest
shopping weekend of the year
Looks like Target is going to get hit hard and I dont have to wait till Christmas. So your theory is out the door huh?
I don't have a theory. I simply reported the sales numbers Target had listed on their website (I think that's where I got if from).
At that point, they were up 12% YTD. You're right, though, it's all speculation at this point, let's check out the numbers at year end.
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