A pair of boots has been removed from Walmart’s online store after causing controversy.
It was reported on Wednesday the chain determined the boots violated the company’s “prohibited product policy.”
According to the report, the boots were offered by a third-party seller on Walmart Marketplace and had “KKK” printed on the tongue of the shoes.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) then reportedly informed Walmart about the shoes over the weekend.
The organization also took to Twitter to thank the company for removing the shoes from the marketplace.
“We thank [Walmart] for dropping an online listing for oddly/poorly named ‘KKK’ boots after we brought this to their attention earlier today,” CAIR tweeted along with a photo of the shoes.
We thank @Walmart for dropping an online listing for oddly/poorly named "KKK" boots after we brought this to their attention earlier today. pic.twitter.com/zqTf2o9jsM
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) January 7, 2023
A Walmart spokesperson told Nexstar in a statement, “This item was listed by an outside third-party seller and removed because the item is inconsistent with our values and violates Walmart’s prohibited product policy.”
The statement continues, “Like other major retailers, we operate an online marketplace that allows third-party sellers to offer merchandise to customers through our eCommerce platform. We have a process in place designed to prevent third party sellers from offering inappropriate items on our platform. Still, at times, inappropriate items make their way onto our platform.”
According to the spokesperson, the company is “reviewing how this happened and will apply what we learn to further improve our rules and processes to prevent the sale of inappropriate merchandise.”
Walmart previously removed another item from its online store offered by an outside seller.
In 2017, the chain removed a shirt from third-party seller Teespring that read: “Rope. Tree. Journalist. SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.”
“This item was sold by a third-party seller on our marketplace and clearly violates our policy,” Walmart said in a statement at the time.
The statement continued, “We removed it as soon as it was brought to our attention, and are conducting a thorough review of the seller’s assortment.”
