Note to all retailers: learn about the rise of the Nazis in Germany and never, ever, attempt to sell anything in stores or online that reminds people of the atrocities carried out under the Third Reich. Sears, through no doing of its own, has learned first hand the intense reactions that people have to such merchandise when a third-party seller offered a ring with a swastika design for sale on the retailer's online marketplace.
Sears offered the following response to the negative reaction caused by the ring's sale on its site. "All Marketplace Sellers must accept our seller agreement terms in order to sell their items on sears.com and part of that agreement includes an understanding that certain offensive items may not be listed. If a problem occurs, we take appropriate action. The ring has not been purchasable since this morning and we are in the process of completely removing the items from our site."
Sears action did not assuage many angered by ring's appearance. The company was criticized for allowing the item to appear on its site in the first place and for being slow to remove it when its presence became known.
A Facebook user identified as Sharon Budman wrote, "It is irrelevant whether it's a 1st party or 3rd party product that was being sold in the 'Sears Marketplace' space. The fact that the product 'did not comply with guidelines' is also irrelevant. Guidelines, like policies must be monitored for compliance, which should have been done prior to having allowed the item to be posted. Policy/guideline enforcement requires proactive and active oversight and monitoring. Passive or reactive oversight may be too late especially when your brand/name is at stake."
Another Facebook user, Tom Smith, wrote, "My question is — what measures will you put in place to ensure that offensive items such as this never get to the catalog again in the first place? And when will those measures be fully in place and effective?"
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was willing to give Sears the benefit of the doubt in this case.
"They took this situation very seriously and took immediate steps to remove the items from their web site," said Lonnie Nasatir, ADL Chicago regional director., in a statement. "We deeply appreciate their efforts and believe they did the right thing by removing this product immediately and making clear that they believed the third-party sellers had exercised very poor judgment."
Sears is not the only retailer to deal with a controversy of this type. The fast fashion chain Zara pulled a striped shirt with a yellow star that reminded people of the uniforms Jews were forced to wear in Nazi death camps.
Zara's parent Inditex quickly apologized for the offense and said it had pulled the item from its site just a few hours after it went on sale. All remaining stock was destroyed.