“We have heard from customers that we have let them down,” the company said. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”
The move was met with celebration by conservative campaigners – and shock by others, including a New York animal shelter, LGBTQ+ organizations, and an association that aims to support black farmers.
Tractor Supply did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Saturday.
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The company is the latest to find itself at a crossroads between customers of different political persuasions. Last year, sales of Bud Light fell after it ran an ad featuring a transgender social media influencer, and Target lost business after unveiling a Pride Month collection. And while a CONSERVATIVE As the legal campaign dismantles corporate and government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, some companies are privately rebranding their DEI policies.
Tractor Supply, which sells pet food, tractor parts and power tools in more than 2,230 stores nationwide, was recognized for its inclusiveness last year. Bloomberg praised it for promoting gender equality, while Newsweek named it one of America’s best companies for diversity.
“Our deeply held mission and values are the foundation of who we are as an organization,” Melissa Kersey, executive vice president of Tractor Supply, said in a statement in February 2023. “They dictate that Tractor Supply prioritize a job safe, respectful and inclusive environment that values diversity of thought and perspective.”
But the company came under scrutiny this month when conservative podcast host Robby Starbuck denounced Tractor Supply’s diversity and climate policies. An employee recently texted him to complain that the company was supporting LGBTQ+ groups, Starbuck told The Washington Post.
Starbuck visited Tractor Supply every week to buy supplies for his farm in Franklin, Tenn., he said, but he wasn’t happy with the company putting money into outreach programs.
“Start buying what you can from other places until Tractor Supply makes REAL changes,” he wrote in X on June 6.
Other customers responded by saying they would join the boycott, and the company’s share price fell 5 percent in the past month, according to the Financial Times.
Starbuck and other conservative X users, including the Libs of TikTok, celebrated publicly after Tractor Supply said it would reverse some of its policies.
“This is about getting back to an environment where businesses are just businesses again, and they’re not representative of social values or political values,” Starbuck told The Post.
Others were not so happy.
John Boyd Jr., founder of the National Black Farmers Association, an advocacy group for African-American farmers, told The Post that Tractor Supply is “sending the wrong message to America.” In four decades as a farmer, Boyd said, he has seen White farmers – who made up about 95 percent of farmers in 2017 – spit The faces of black farmers and they call them the n-word.
“We’re just going backwards,” Boyd said of Tractor Supply’s decision.
SquirrelWood Equine Sanctuary, an animal shelter in Montgomery, NY, said Tractor Supply would not receive more than the $65,000 it typically spends there each year.
“You have lost our business and any shred of respect we might have had,” the sanctuary wrote in X.
Eric Bloem, vice president of corporate programs and advocacy for the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement to The Post that Tractor Supply is “turning its back on their neighbors.” Tennessee state Sen. Charlane Oliver (D) wrote in X that the company was “picking on hate and bigotry.”
Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD, said Tractor Supply has brought “harm to their LGBTQ customers and employees.”
“Tractor Supply’s shameful capitulation to the petty whims of anti-LGBTQ extremists puts the company out of touch with the vast majority of Americans who support their LGBTQ friends, family and neighbors,” Ellis said in a statement to The Post.
DEI’s programs became popular among many organizations during the racial justice movement sparked by the killing of George Floyd in 2020. But backlash soon followed from critics who claimed the policies created new inequalities.
Frank Dobbin, a sociology professor at Harvard University who researches corporate diversity programs, said it’s rare for companies to publicly announce changes to diversity programs. Depending on how the move affects Tractor Supply’s business, Dobbin said the company could be a “test case” that informs whether other organizations announce similar cuts.
“Will this trickle down to many other companies?” asked Dobby. “Or will this be the lesson that other companies learn, that you don’t want to change course in trying to promote equality?”