@cafechatnoir @nora you’re probably right about the water, I just wanted to pop in here to remind people that just because something is sold in the store in the US doesn’t mean it is safe and free of contaminants

For example, I learned that the equate brand of Metamucil (the #Walmart store brand) was tested by consumer labs and it had so much #lead in it that if you were using it as directed you were exceeding the safe lead levels. And personally, I don’t really want to consume any lead even if they think the level is safe.

Some of the vanilla flavor protein powders that are sold contain #arsenic and I don’t remember why. They claimed to be within safe levels but I would prefer not to consume that either.

@GottaLaff Hé he’s the best businessman #america has ever seen. He’s know what he’s doing. The #walmart #target people should know that. Euh,

@Tooden oh yes now, totally. But 10 years ago on Facebook it was a bunch of old people who didn’t understand surveillance, hence the complaining on Facebook.

#Walmart is extra sketchy. I tried their scan as you go thing last year, it requires you download the app and then give it access to your precise location. I already had to download the app to process a return so I figured I would try it.

First of all, it was terrifying because I am NOT in the habit of scanning each item before I put it in my cart so I had to keep stopping to count the items in my cart and compare it to my phone to make sure I didn’t forget to scan something.

Then when I got to the checkout I had the person monitoring the area come make sure I did it right so I wouldn’t get tackled on my way out.

And then on my way out I passed by the Service Credit Union, and the nail/hair salon, then there was some bath fitter type home improvement booth where they try to get your attention as you’re leaving. I didn’t stop of course.

The next morning I woke up to an email sent directly to my email registered with Walmart for the same home improvement company that was in the booth in the Walmart.

I KARENED. They insisted that it was pure coincidence, that they respect our #privacy and they would never! Bullshit.

I also remember the day I realized that the stuff I buy in the store shows up in my online account if I use the same credit card in both places. How is that respecting my privacy? What if I was buying my husband a birthday gift in the store? He logs on later to buy groceries and he sees that gift in my “previous purchases”. Birthday ruined!

(I don’t have a husband and obviously you can work around this IF YOU KNOW IT IS HAPPENING.)

@ClintonAnderson Oh I agree they can get fucked. Especially Walmart who started raising prices in December 2024 “In anticipation of tariffs” but now they have to raise them again because of the actual #tariffs (and I understand this is partly because the insane clown keeps increasing them, I just wanted to remind people that #walmart is full of shit.)

While a lot of the stories in this thread focus on the cowardice of institutional actors in either submitting to, or even assisting the fascist Trump regime in installing a Christian Nationalist dictatorship, when the history of this political moment is written, it will be noted that it was actually big companies in the US private sector that embraced the regime's white nationalist policy platforms first and in doing so, helped legitimate Trump's quest to rule as King of America. Unlike institutional actors in higher education, lawyers targeted for revenge by Der Führer, or bodies controlled by the (openly fascist) US government through funding, large corporations in the private sector required little if any incentive to adopt Trump's authoritarian "anti-DEI" policies; indeed, companies like Walmart, Paramount, and even Victoria's Secret practically fell all over themselves to align with the regime's agenda, essentially obeying in advance, before the administration had to apply any pressure at all.

Why would they do that? As this short essay in The Guardian lays bare, the truth is that they never really wanted to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion even before the rise of Trump - which is why the programs they installed after the twin motivating factors of the George Floyd protests against police violence, and the COVID pandemic, were never really designed to achieve those objectives in the first place.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/06/diversity-equity-business-trump-history

American corporations didn’t want to diversify, anyway

"Within days of taking office, Donald Trump signed an executive order that would eliminate Johnson’s civil rights order. The order directed the office of federal contract compliance to stop “promoting diversity” and holding contractors responsible for “affirmative action”. To Smith, the administration’s early actions amount to “a blatant effort in order to not only uphold the white power structure, but to remove any government responsibility to uphold the rights of individuals of color, specifically Black people”. It is the fruit of a conservative movement that has been trying to reverse course ever since the government began taking seriously efforts to protect the rights of Americans regardless of race, sex, religion or national origin.

In 2020, hundreds of private companies pledged to change their culture – to use their power and influence and, most importantly, money, to re-shape American society toward more just ends. Now, the three largest employers in the nation – Walmart, Amazon, and the federal government – have all rolled those policies back. Dozens of other corporations have turned back the clock on even pretending to care about equality in the workplace as well.

To businesses’ credit, they had a difficult task ahead of them in 2020. “They’re faced with putting a policy in place quickly that’s responsive and doesn’t sound like lip service to frustrated people,” Dawkins said. But in doing so, they made an admission: they had not been taking diversity seriously before – and the capitulation to the administration’s demands since has betrayed that truth. And they made clear their efforts were always lip service."

Look, I don't think it's really news that much of the American private sector's DEI initiatives were motivated more by *appearing* to oppose white supremacy and enforced social hierarchies in an increasingly Christian Nationalist political environment, than actually opposing those problems. This was pointed out long before Trump's second term, and obviously their actions since the regime was installed have demonstrated that critics were right to question the commitment of American corporations that directly profit from a white supremacist order that marks out certain groups of people for brutal exploitation. In that context then, it's important to understand that we are in fact not "all in this together" and a corporate sector that gladly donated to Trump's election campaigns must be understood as *active* partners in the installation of a Christian Nationalist dictatorship in America. The fact that they did so because they think it'll improve their bottom line is largely irrelevant; fascist collaboration is still fascist collaboration, regardless of the motives that inspire it.