Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is eating its words after refusing to make a custom cake for a retiring police officer.
The officer’s daughter — who prefers to remain anonymous — went to a Georgia location where she put in a request for a cake with the American flag in black and white with a blue stripe added in. The employee refused, claiming the cake might be misconstrued as being racist.
She then asked for a simpler design that would simply have a blue line with a chocolate background, and three separate employees refused her request. The daughter does not understand why she was shot down, but the move could be related to recent cases of police brutality that may be racially motivated.
After she made her complaint public, Walmart backtracked and apologized for refusing to make the cake. The company offered to make it, but the daughter feels like the retailer did so in order to save face.
The apology seemed scripted rather than sincere and it sounded like a move based on pressure from the public. She eventually accepted the new cake, and she was disappointed with the result.
It was a very simple creation with a thick blue line and the words “Blue Lives Matter” which appears to have been rushed as the cake did not seem to be up to the company’s professional standards.
WMT stock is up 0.9% Tuesday.
