‘Make my day’.
That’s the message an American anti-DEI crusader is sending one of the largest US — and Canadian — retailers for refusing to cave in to pressure to scrap what he calls political correctness.
That’s because Costco this weekend bucked a growing trend in corporate America to abandon workplace policies some say unfairly discriminates against white people by doubling down on DEI even as competitors like Target and Walmart abandon their own inclusion initiatives.
Even the White House under president Donald Trump has moved to layoff and eventually fire what it says are DEI hires under the previous Biden administration.
But Seattle-based Costco shareholders last week overwhelmingly voted down a proxy proposal at its annual meeting asking its board of directors — which is overwhelmingly made up of white males — to perform a risk assessment of its DEI initiatives.
The final tally was over 98% against, timed to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US. Meanwhile, controversial civil rights activist Al Sharpton led 100 members of his National Action Network through the Harlem Costco to spend their money in a show of gratitude for the decision.
Sharpton said outside the store that he'd bought 100 $25 gift vouchers for each ‘buy-in’ participant to spend inside.
“We’re going shopping at Costco because they’ve stood with us. People that stand with us, we will stand with them,” he said.
“Why do we have DEI? We have DEI because you denied us diversity, you denied us equity, you denied us inclusion. DEI was a remedy to the racial institutionalized bigotry practice in academia and in these corporations. Now, if you want to put us back in the back of the bus, we going to do the Dr. King-Rosa Parks on you.”
But the move has been sharply criticized due to Sharpton's divisive reputation, calling his involvement as the 'kiss of death' for Costco on social media.
Noted anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who has claimed to have convinced other major companies like John Deere, Harley Davidson and even Jack Daniel’s to disband their ’inclusion’ departments, said Costco is making a huge mistake and vowed to press on.
“A good hunter knows that patience is the best virtue, without it, prey will always elude you,” he Tweeted on Twitter (“X”). “Don’t mistake my silence for inaction.”
Seemingly in response, Costco cancelled its Twitter account.
“I think they’ll deeply regret it,” he continued. “They still have a little bit of time to consider turning back. I hope they make the right choice.”
Starbuck warned it’s “a very loooong way down” for Costco shares — which are up more than 200% over the past five years — should they choose to ignore him.
Nonetheless, the company’s NASDAQ-listed shares were up almost USD$7 on Monday, to $947.12 and just shy of a 52-week high of $1,008.25.
A Marketwatch survey of major US investment analysts including Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Telsey Advisory Group rank it as a ‘buy’.
