Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, faces a boycott from a conservative group that wants the company to change its policies toward homosexuals. Operation Rescue/Operation Save America will tell customers not to shop at Wal-Mart starting the day after Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, the group's director, Rev. Flip Benham, said Friday. The anti-abortion group is protesting Wal-Mart's August decision to become a member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. Benham said Wal-Mart's low prices are popular with evangelical Christians, many of whom have large families. "Believe me, it is our favorite store," he said. "It is the store where Christians in America shop," but added that wouldn't stop his supporters from "doing the hard thing." "We're dealing with a corporation that was built on family-friendly principles," Benham said. "What we as the church have to do is help Wal-Mart do what's right."

While it is not clear whether Reverned Benham means politically "Right" or morally so, one thing is clear, capitulating to the demands of Operation Rescue/Save America is not the right thing for Wal-Mart to do, at least not from an economic or strategic point of view. Patricia Edwards, a money manager interviewed for the Bloomberg article explains why:

"The question is, are they offending someone who is too important to their overall well-being?" said Patricia Edwards, a Seattle-based money manager at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich. "Theoretically, they would be, when you look at their store base in the Bible Belt," she said. "Wal-Mart has been viewed as being more on the right. They're just trying to come back to the center, and I think as a capitalist, that is what they need to be doing," she said. "As America's largest private employer, they are walking a finer line." Historically, Edwards said, boycotts "have not been as effective as some of these groups would have liked."

Patricia has this exactly right. First of all, boycotts of this kind do not have a history of working well, let alone bringing a retail giant like Wal-Mart to its knees. Consumers, whether devoutly religious or not, are economically savvy. They understand that they don't have to agree with all of a companies policies in order to shop there. No one can afford to only shop at stores whose policies are aligned with their own. Whether it ought to or not, when it comes to purchasing decisions, the Holy Book often loses to the checkbook.

Patricia also has it right concerning Wal-Mart's move back to the center. Being seen as right-of-center needlessly alienates and marginalizes many potential customers. Toasters overn are made for and work just as well in the homes of sinners and saints. More to the point, while there is no avoiding the fact that Wal-Mart has far more stores in the US in red states and counties than in blue ones, being seen as at least not-anti-blue could help lower some of the barriers it has faced to entering the deepest blue urban markets. There are people there too, after all, who have big families and who could benefit from what Wal-Mart has to offer.

Tags: WalMart

See also: Xan's post entitled "Hey, Look Who's Joining Our Wal-Mart Boycott" at Corrente.