Turlock Safeway may be in hot water over an in-store display for Fourth of July and Budweiser that prominently featured the uniforms of the U.S. Marines, U.S. Army, and U.S. Navy over mannequins.
One customer, who requested to not be identified, says he found the display to be dishonorable to the men and women who have worn the uniforms, including himself.
“Some genius at their headquarters thought it would be a great idea to use the uniforms of our military, our veterans, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers…our heroes…to sell beer,” said the customer. “Its pretty disrespectful if you ask me [sic].”
In addition to the Fourth of July, the display was meant to bring attention to a fundraiser for Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides assistance to the spouses and children of servicemembers killed or disabled in service to the United State of America. With each Budweiser product sold $1 will be donated to Folds of Honor.
“When you walk in, it just looks like uniforms selling beer,” the customer said. “There is nothing on the display to suggest there is any type of fundraiser, and to surround the uniforms in beer without any indication of what is going on is pretty poor planning/marketing. Especially the dog tag hanging outside the uniform.”
The customer said he notified the store manager who told him the display was constructed via orders from Safeway Corporate.
Wendy Gutshall, a spokesperson for Safeway Corporate, said the display was not a national schematic and it was unique to the Turlock store.
“Safeway is a proud supporter of the military. The display is exclusive to the Turlock store and they created it to show their patriotism for the Fourth of July. When the store received a complaint from a customer about the proximity of mannequins in uniforms to certain products they immediately moved the display,” Gutshall wrote in a statement to TurlockCityNews.com.
Submitted/TurlockCityNews.com
This is Uh-merica, I have served, and as long as they are not violating anyone’s constitutional rights, why try to tell them how they can exercise their rights, regardless of how you feel about them. Defend this country, and take the good with the bad.
‘Merica (*edited by tcn) ya.
We have enough problems with alcohol abuse/addiction throughout society and in the military it is not promoted but it seems to be one of the things that bonds soldiers together. This display is disturbing to me and in bad taste.
What’s un-patriotic about military and alcohol and America? I love it.
To the customer who complained you should not feel disrespected the display was not done to sell beer. It was done PURELY to HONOR all VETERANS. I think taking it down was wrong and it should be put back up. I think you/we/us should be able to show our PATRIOTISM for all to see. I vote to put it back. And Mr McCorckell were wrong to report this with the headline you did.
Then go ahead and complaint about all of the Budweiser, bud light, and every other beer out there and their tv commercials with veterans and beer. Some people with nothing to do find every little thing offensive to complaint. Don’t buy fireworks they have nothing to do with the US independence.
In regards to the Patriotic display that was take down @ Safeway in Turlock; The display may have offended Safeway a guest and yes the display did get taken down, but the store is not in “hot water”. We often do themed displays in our front lobby for holidays. Items that are placed in the lobby are always items that are picked by our corporate merchandiser and that is based on high volume items that customers buy and we want to make sure we can meet the customers wants. Like I said displays have themes and what is the idea behind of Fourth of July; it is to celebrate our Independence and to give honor to those who given their lives and time to serve for our freedom. The lobby display was made up of top selling items and a theme of patriotism. The uniforms were borrowed by a store in Modesto and needed to be displayed in a way as to protect them from being overly touch by customers and so they would not fall over. The display was meant for us all to stop and think about the men and women who have given so much to our country. It could have been another boring display that just wants to promote consumerism, but that’s not what we wanted to say this Fourth of July. The signage that promotes beer sales and veterans was supplied Anheiser Bush; did you contact them to ask why they have chosen to promote the donations to the military families in a way that ” appears” to imply that service men and women like to drink. I believe that there was more than one way that this story could have been wrote, starting with the headline! Maybe the Turlock Journal uses questionable journalism to sell papers!