Walmart stops selling shirt after shoppers point out it spells an offensive word
- Walmart momentarily sold a pro-environment shirt encouraging people to recycle, among other things.
- Eagle-eyed shoppers posted on social media that the shirt spelled out an offensive word.
Walmart has stopped selling a pro-environment T-shirt after eagle-eyed shoppers noticed an offensive word on the item, a company spokesman told Insider.
The T-shirt features the letters "RE" on the left and a list of four words on the right: "cycle," "use," "new," and "think." Together, the first letter of each of those four words spells the word.
Shoppers pointed out the spelling on social media.
"I need this shirt before Walmart realizes what they have done," one shopper wrote in an April 3 tweet that features a photo of the shirt and now has 2.6 million views. "Find the hidden word. "
Robert Arietta, a spokesperson for Walmart, told Insider that the shirt "was only sold at Walmart Canada locations and has been removed from stores." Arietta did not answer follow-up questions on how long the shirt was sold and why Walmart decided to remove the shirt.
The shirt was not available on walmart.com as of Tuesday afternoon. It could be found at other online retailers including Amazon and Etsy.