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In South Carolina, the governor has called for the Confederate flag to stop flying over the capitol. The governors of Virginia and North Carolina quickly declared that they would remove the flag from state license plates. Meanwhile, several of the country's top retailers -- including eBay and Amazon -- announced in quick succession that they would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. Now MJ Lee reports at CNN that the debate over the Confederate flag is the most recent and vivid illustration of how changes in the business community can influence and pressure politics. "What you are seeing is a broad, acknowledgment across both the consumer, the political and the business community that that particular emblem is no longer part of something that should be a state-issued emblem," says GOP strategist Scott Jennings.
Walmart, Amazon, eBay and Sears announced within the span of one day that they would ban the sale of Confederate flag merchandise from their stores, saying they had no intention of offending customers. As Walmart CEO Doug McMillon put it, the decision was straightforward: "We want everybody to feel comfortable shopping at Walmart." Corporate and business leaders say that the abandoning the flag is a step towards inclusiveness for a region that has long struggled to shed negative images. "The business community -- they have a lot of say and power all over the country, whether it's on religion or ethnicity or LGBT issues," says Ralph Northam. "When you're running a business, you have to have the doors open and welcome diversity."
takyon: Alabama Governor Orders Removal Of Confederate Flags From Capitol
'Dukes of Hazzard' toy car General Lee loses its Confederate flag
Note: These moves are in response to the events in Charleston.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 24 2015, @11:18PM
BTW that's one of the drawbacks of having Main Street eviscerated by online retailers.
Who cares? It's not like everyone's going to suddenly do all their grocery shopping online. We've had online shopping in a big way for at least 15 years now, and while some retailers have been hit hard (Circuit Shitty, Radio Trash, Borders, etc.), many others are doing just fine (Walmart, Target, Costco, etc.). Some things just don't lend themselves well to online shopping: food and clothing are two big ones. And many of the stores which have gone by the wayside did so not only because of online competition from Amazon and friends, but also because those stores just plain sucked. High prices and horrible service is what killed Circuit City and RS, and also competition from other B&M stores (why pay $$$ for a TV at Circuit Shitty when you can get it much cheaper at Costco or Walmart? Why waste time at Borders when you can go to B&N instead?).
Main Street isn't going away any time soon. Some things are now really stupid to try to sell locally, such as PCs (unless maybe you're Fry's), but a lot of things aren't because the shopping experience online just doesn't compare to browsing through a retailer's wares in person.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:25AM
Explain why Worst Buy [bestbuy.com] is still in business.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:14AM
Magic? Sacrifices to dark and bloody god......?
Front for the CIA/FBI/NSA.....?
Nobody knows....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday June 27 2015, @02:43PM
That's easy: there's still a bunch of rubes out there who like to shop at places like that and pay high prices for poor service because they're gullible and swayed by marketing. There aren't many places left to buy that stuff in-person, and BB probably has a better selection than places like Walmart or Target. And only a few select west coast locations have Fry's (which isn't all the great either, but it's a lot better than BB).
The problem is, there weren't enough un-savvy shoppers out there to support CC, BB, and RS all at the same time. So the crappiest ones folded, leaving BB as the main destination for such people.
Don't forget, BB offers a few things you can't get from online sellers, such as the ability to see the product in-person, the ability to talk to a salesperson (yeah, that isn't worth much with BB salesdroids, but to some people it is), and the ability to walk away with the product immediately.
My wife was like this before: years ago, for some reason she needed a new computer (I don't remember what the circumstances were any more, it was quite some time ago), and wanted one RIGHT NOW. She didn't want to wait for a computer from a mail order place like Newegg. So, against my better judgment we went to BB, and bought a good-looking Lenovo laptop that was a floor model, at a high price. We took it home and promptly had some kind of malfunction with the screen. I tried to take it back and they gave us a lot of hassle because I had installed some software on it (which is something you normally do with a computer...), and they wanted to charge us a fee for Geek Squad to remove the software (yes, they were not going to re-image the drive, they were going to re-sell it even if I had installed some malware on it intentionally or unintentionally), because they couldn't reproduce the screen fault in the few minutes they looked at it. So I started doing it myself, and then the screen completely died while the employee was looking, so they stopped arguing and gave us a full refund. Anyway, the customer-service experience was so poor my wife never wanted to go to BB again, and we ordered her a (another Lenovo) computer on Newegg that was cheaper and better and lasted the normal amount of time for such a laptop. Why anyone shops there, I can only guess it's marketing, selection, and ignorance of the crappy customer service when something goes wrong. If it had been Walmart, for instance, they'll take back anything, no questions asked.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TheRaven on Thursday June 25 2015, @08:17AM
It's not like everyone's going to suddenly do all their grocery shopping online
Really? Maybe it's just where I live, but most people that I know do. In the UK, all of the major supermarket chains have online order and delivery options, Ocado is online-only. It takes less time to order online than it takes to even get to the nearest supermarket, then someone else handles the delivery, so it saves me a good hour of my time for each shop.
Some things just don't lend themselves well to online shopping: food and clothing are two big ones
I buy a lot of my food online, though having a farm shop less than a minute's walk from my front door means that I tend to buy fresh things locally. My girlfriend (who buys a lot more clothes than me) buys a lot of things online - most online clothes retailers let you return things for free, so she gets to order a load of things, try them on at home, and then send back the ones that she doesn't like (or drop them into a shop locally - so the shop still needs to exist, but can be a lot smaller or could just be a large letterbox).
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:21PM
Agreed, all my food shopping is done online and delivered at a time I choose (usually every Sunday morning 11:00 - 12:00)
If I am not happy with a particular item, they will either take it back and refund me the price, or let me keep it and refund me the price.
I have not done a full weekly shop myself for at least 6 months.