The Tractor Supply Company has withdrawn from its DEI initiatives after facing ‘frustration’ from its conservative customer base.
The retailer, which offers home improvement and gardening supplies in more than 2,400 stores nationwide, said last week it was scrapping its diversity, equality and inclusion policies because it “takes feedback (from customers) to heart.”
The move will see the company end its sponsorship of ‘pride festivals and get-out-the-vote campaigns’, along with curtailing all of DEI’s internal roles and goals.
“We’ve heard from customers that we’ve let them down,” the company said in a press release, adding that it “will still provide a respectful environment.”
Tractor Supply has withdrawn from its DEI initiatives after facing ‘frustration’ from its conservative customer base
The company’s return to DEI comes after several large companies took huge financial hits in recent years after being perceived as ‘woke’.
This included Bud Light losing its position as America’s number one beer seller after a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Target facing a boycott over its ‘LGBTQ Pride Month friendly’ merchandise a year ago.
For Tractor Supply Co., the backlash to its DEI initiatives appears to have been caused by the conservative backlash on social media, led by Republican influencer and failed congressional candidate Robby Starbuck.
Starbuck, a music video producer who ran unsuccessfully for a congressional seat in Tennessee in 2022, took aim at the company in a series of tweets earlier this month.
“It’s time to expose Tractor Supply,” he began in a tweet that garnered almost three million views.
He singled out the company’s DEI employment policies, LGBTQ training for employees, climate change initiatives and alleged ‘sex change financing’.
The company’s CEO and president Hal Lawton was called out for its DEI initiatives, as well as for allegedly “liking posts that attack unvaccinated people.”
The company’s DEI comeback comes after several major companies took major financial hits in recent years after being perceived as ‘woke’, including Bud Light’s disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney (pictured) last year
Last year, Target sold women’s “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, sparking calls for a boycott from conservative shoppers
Starbuck also called out CEO and president Hal Lawton by name, claiming he “liked posts attacking unvaccinated people.”
He urged his followers to email and call the Tractor Supply Co. corporate office. to show their disapproval and boycott its products.
The Financial Times reported that Starbuck’s campaign against the company appeared to have an immediate impact, with its share price falling five percent in the past month.
Starbuck’s took a victory lap as Tractor Supply Co. reverses course, claiming a ‘massive victory’ after calling it ‘the single biggest boycott victory of our lifetime’.
That claim seems exaggerated, considering Bud Light lost a staggering $27 billion in market value after the Mulvaney fiasco.
Tractor Supply Co said its announcement will ‘secure our operations and provide tires directly to our business.’
This will include no longer handing over its internal data to the advocacy group LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign and ending its carbon emissions targets in favor of land and water conservation.
While some conservatives praised the move, others criticized the company for bowing to pressure.
Tennessee state senator Charalene Oliver said on X: ‘Imagine being based in the 9th wealthiest district in the country while saying you are the “biggest supporter” of rural America where poverty is worst .
“Also choosing hate and bigotry by announcing this in the same month as June and Pride is bad business.”
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told The Advocate that the move was “disgraceful.”
“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,” she said.
“It sends a terrible message, during Pride month, to see a rural staple go out of their way to bring harm to their LGBTQ customers and employees.”