Supposedly, Walmart is family friendly.
Supposedly, the company is specifically focused on facilitating the needs of mothers.
Walmart's silly, pandering, new "Eleven Moms" campaign-- consisting, no kidding, of 19 rather than 11 bargain-hunting, values-beaming women bloggers-- will probably serve its intended purpose of buoying the brand through the upcoming holiday season.
But to peel back the facile PR facade-- to examine real real stories of women's experiences at Walmart's stores-- is to see something else entirely:
Heather Silvis says she felt bullied when Wal-Mart associates told her she could not breastfeed her baby in the store on Two Notch Road.
Heather Silvis, a real mother, bargain-hunting at a Columbia, South Carolina Walmart outlet, was rudely prohibited from undertaking an activity that is the very heart of motherhood: feeding and caring for her child.
To be clear: breastfeeding in public is expressly permitted under South Carolina law.
Also, to be clear: asking someone to go to a special area to perform a given function she's about to undertake is one thing. That's not what happened. A team of thugs in Walmart uniforms, including a manager, not only didn't ask, but rather told-- they illegally handled the child without permission, separating the baby from its mother:
"Then one of them stood up and pushed my shopping cart with my 21-month-old baby in it and my purse around the corner and I was told, 'If you want to breast feed, you're going to have to go in there.' So I followed my child who was in my shopping cart went into the dressing room and nursed my baby," Silvis said.
It's about as clear an indication as the Bentonville Behemoth could possibly make: Walmart's concern for women and for mothers extends to the point of separating them from their money-- and no further. The disgusting fact is that they are honestly disgusted with the particulars of motherhood, and they're not afraid to express that.
Of course this is only one of the things wrong with Walmart. I'm working with Wake-Up Wal-Mart to rally American voices, to force Walmart to respect its workers and its customers. There's more information here.
(Cross-posted to MyDD and some State Blogs)