At least five north San Diego County Walmart stores, and others across the country, dismiss Memorial Day in lieu of an "American Summer" promotion.
The week-long sale flyer offers roll back prices on outdoor exercise and sporting equipment such as bicycles, scooters, volleyball, basketball and badminton sets. Discounts also include the typical weekend barbecue menu of ribs, soda and chips.
Ironically, the camping gear page says, "roughing it has never been so comfortable". Walmart seems to have forgotten what roughing it really means on Memorial Day.
They have reduced old glory to a small interstate sign with a few red stripes on a blue and white background. The stars are found on page four on top of the cherry tarts.
The Walmart slogan "save money live better" could have at least been expanded to honor our veterans who sacrificed so much to preserve our freedom and truly allow us to "live better".
While we all know and appreciate the somber significance of Memorial Day, an image of the American Flag combined with "Memorial Day Sale" is traditional recognition of military service from American business.
Ironically, local Walmart stores are strategically located near military bases and an obvious high concentration of military and veteran families shop at Walmart. Adding to the perplexity, and to be fair, the Walmart Military Support Fact Sheet lists numerous generous donations to support military families and veteran's programs across the country.
Considering all of this, the failure to recognize one of our nation's most famous and respected holidays is not only an enormous advertising oversight, it is thoughtless. Where's Memorial Day at Walmart?
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