Walmart Stops Selling Confederate Flag Merchandise

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Walmart announced yesterday that it will no longer sell any Confederate flags or Confederate flag paraphernalia, CNN reports. The announcement happened hours after South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said she supports removing the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds of her state in the aftermath of the mass murder of nine Bible study members at a historic African American church in Charleston. Up until Monday afternoon, Walmart.com sold both Confederate flags and items emblazoned with the flag like shirts and belt buckles.

"We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our web site," Walmart spokesman Brian Nick told CNN. "We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances."

Sears is also removing any Confederate flag items sold online. Meanwhile, Quartz reports that Amazon and eBay are still selling Confederate flag merchandise, and both companies didn't respond to emailed questions from Quartz about whether they will join the ban.