On Tuesday, Walmart made a grandstanding announcement signaling a change in its policy on the sales of certain ammunition and legal open carry in it stores. This was a change the company originally said it was not going to make.
On Monday night, my managing editor made an excellent point in response to Townhall’s Guy Benson, who had earlier made an excellent point of his own.
This, all day long. @Walmart needs to do some serious soul-searching and perhaps some market research to understand who their customers are. https://t.co/KLa7telz7y
— Paula Bolyard (@pbolyard) September 4, 2019
Walmart executives are no doubt under the impression that this capitulation will satisfy at least some of the company’s critics from the rabidly anti-Second Amendment Left. If so, it would mean that they have had limited exposure to American leftists.
When it comes to the leftists’ biggest pet issues, there is never a satisfactory partial response. They want total surrender and nothing less. They’re zealots, not rational people who just happen to think differently.
You don’t have to take my word on this, the Left is always more than eager to make the point. Just one day after Walmart made its announcement, San Francisco branded the responsible, legal gun owners of the NRA a “domestic terrorist organization.”
True, there was a time when all of the Bay Area and their attendant politics could have been written off as anomalous outliers, but the heart and soul of the present-day Democratic Party can be found there now.
In one policy shift, Walmart has managed to alienate and demonize Walmart shoppers. The company played to coastal elites who not only don’t shop at Walmart, but don’t live anywhere near one even if they wanted to. America’s largest and overwhelmingly liberal cities aren’t blessed with a lot of Walmart Supercenters.
By banning open carry in its stores, Walmart is lending credence to the lie that all legal gun owners are dangerous.
In short, Walmart now despises Walmart shoppers.
The company does have room for a monumental mistake like this. Walmart is still the world’s largest retailer and — in many semi-rural areas — an almost monopolistic shopping presence.
I’m not a big boycott fan, but that doesn’t mean I won’t alter my consumerism when annoyed by something.
There are two Walmarts that are equidistant from me. Neither too far away nor very convenient. I rarely even go out to shop for the basics — I have most things delivered — but I have been frequenting these Walmarts since I first moved back to Tucson last year to shop for toiletries and household cleaning items. I haven’t been doing that for the prices, I’ve been doing it because I could also buy handgun ammo every time I shopped.
Walmart has been in a battle royale with Amazon for retail dominance for years now. Every non-ammunition item I was purchasing from Walmart can be delivered to me by Amazon now, which is what will be happening.
Yeah, that’s not going to bankrupt Walmart, but I’m certainly not the only one thinking that way today.
The only people who haven’t changed their thinking are the very ones Walmart thought it would be placating with their new policies. They still hate the place.
Brilliant move.
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PJ Media Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.”
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