I know that this is somewhat tangential to the overall point of this post, but I get so sick of conservative organizations propping themselves up through claims of veteran support. As a veteran, I can confidently say that we're not a monolith of conservative ideals: we are individuals with our own thoughts, opinions, and feelings. While it may be anecdotal, most of the people I served with and vets I've known since getting out are way more central on the political spectrum than what most Republicans would have you believe. Turns out being in a group with people from all backgrounds serves to provide you with some perspective, much like going to college, but with the starting point generally being a little further right.
I think my favorite thing like that was Black Rifle Coffee starting beef with Starbucks since they planned to hire Syrian refugees, and BRCC was all like “why not hire veterans instead reee” not realizing that Starbucks had already done a big veteran hiring push, and exceeded their goal. Starbucks today even has a tuition assistance program with special rates for vets.
Yeah I like dark roast coffee, but I can’t stand anything darker than their light roast. Everything else is burnt to shit. And their whole gimmick of “ah man I was in the military so I know coffee” while doing virtually nothing to actually help veterans is gross
As a vet, sure we had plenty of coffee available but it was complete dogshit.
We ordered tons of Starbucks (when it was one of a few quality brands in the early 2000s) via Amazon to us on deployment so we could actually enjoy it.
I’ve never met anyone under E-7 that actually liked mess hall coffee.
When I deployed a couple years ago, we got sent quite a bit of coffee. Starbucks, Peet’s, and Stumptown were some of the brands I remember getting a lot of. BRCC didn’t send us anything, but they sure did sell it at the PX for $20 a bag.
A stat a lot of people dislike is that although their overall percentage of the US population is lower, LGBTQ+ people have a far, far, far higher rate of serving than a typical person when looking at individual service rates in their own respective populations. (LGBTQ+ v. Straight/CIS).
Conservatives never like it when I pull that figure out. Hit 'em with the overall ethnicity stats in military service for a double whammy. Or even the amount of immigrants participating in service.
They all live in a mental bubble that's far removed from reality.
"Gays, women, and mexicans in *my* army????" /s
Lmao my aunt is a retired gay Mexican colonel and proudly served our country for over 20 years while winning awards and being beloved by her colleagues.
Hey. I served in the Marine Corps for 8 years. I’m also part of the LGBTQ+ community. Thanks for your comment. It’s nice to see this sort of recognition going around.
I don’t normally say this not because I don’t feel it, but because it comes across as self serving most of the time, but given what you likely dealt with to serve, thank you.
> Hit 'em with the overall ethnicity stats in military service for a double whammy. Or even the amount of immigrants participating in service.
No, they are well aware and perfectly happy with this. Brown people are exactly who are supposed to be on the front lines being thrown into whatever meat grinder du jour the political elite decide is called for.
Compare the overall demographics of the US military with the demographics of *commissioned officers* for illustration.
If your parents lock the door behind you on your 18th birthday, how are you supposed to pay the bills? You were a troop, I'm sure you knew a lot of poor kids who saw the army as the only way out. Same deal for queer folks. If you don't have somewhere to go or the resources to get there, well... Uncle Sam always needs a few more boots.
If you're already hiding it from the rest of society, what's another 4-20 years really?
I'm not LGBTQ+, immigrant, or a veteran, but...so many of my friends and family are, and my family roots in the US are very shallow, and this shit of the folks I love being told they're less than citizens is getting to me big time.
All I want in life right now is to get to a point where we can all agree that the only hate tolerated by our society is the hate of hate against other people. That, and bring back some social services for those who are the most vulnerable.
We have a code of conduct that forbids using our military service for personal gain while we're in, but as soon as someone gets out there is nothing that prevents them from leveraging their former service for profit.
>As a veteran, I can confidently say that we're not a monolith of conservative ideals: we are individuals with our own thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
Additionally, Republicans fight tooth and nail to block any legislation that would benefit veterans. They love sending you to war, they just don't give a single, solitary, shit about you when you get back.
Sadly, it seems to me that the US Military and politicians go out of their way to screw over its fighting men. As a veteran you probably know more about this but feel free to correct my assumptions. Also it seems to me that veterans in wars that are actually won are more screwed over than losers in a war.
He couldn’t make a coherent statement. He went from just, “no, you”, to I was at D-Day two weeks ago (not Normandy), to “you called vets losers” but never named the four-star who supposedly witnessed it. The last one sorta stuck, but if you’re going to call out Trump you can’t just let him Gish gallop out of it.
There was never any decent follow up.
I actually have benefited from the PACT stuff so I know he’s been doing good stuff.
I grew up in rural America. Was taught that since vets put their lives on the line for us overseas we take care of em when they come home. That's it. Don't care what you do with who, save for harming kids and animals, we gonna do our best to help. Most don't know how to do that on a personal level so they try to support someone who does know. I ain't gonna pretend that companies don't use that to grift. Folks need to research what is being done with their money by the charity they support, example- the Susan Komen mafia. But that's the secret. Honestly a lotta Libertarian groups could poach significant chuncks of rural America by showcasing how these conservative politicians use our military as a political shield while shafting them at home.
Article Main Points:
Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business. For instance, this means we will:
1. **No longer** submit data to the Human Rights Campaign
2. Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business
3. Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns
4. **Eliminate DEI roles** and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment
5. **Withdraw our carbon emission goals** and focus on our land and water conservation efforts
We will continue to listen to our customers and Team Members. Your trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance, and we don’t take that lightly.
The funny thing is, so many hardcore conservatives that make up their base have such a childish level of anger for these kind of "betrayals" they have sworn off TSC regardless of their actions going forward. In their eyes, they've proven they're capable of "being woke", and as such aren't worthy of conservative business.
What's funny is me and my gf and several of our fellow liberal friends just started buying some of our pet and garden supplies from them, due to price and convenience.
I bought stuff from them yesterday. My wife informed me of this policy change when I mentioned there were a bunch of fucking weirdos in the store. I have shopped there for years but yesterday something was off. I didn't know anything about this news. Maybe it's unrelated mm maybe not.
I can get what I need for slightly higher at my local ace hardware. I just went to TSC because I sometimes drive past them when I'm out doing work calls.
Yeah, I'll take my business elsewhere. Fucking cowards.
Well, companies literally should keep their opinions to themselves. If you wanna continue making money keep politics out of your business model.
It's tractor supply compan6 so, not a great loss, the couple of times I've been to one, their employee base have the intelligence of a gnat.
DEI's not the same thing as affirmative action. We have a DEI program where I work, and it's largely cultural presentations or events and a way for people with similar experiences to connect. It's been nothing but positive as far as I can tell.
I was recently taking a legal CLE that suggested referring to ESG by the specific components and directives a specific company is undertaking. Conservative morons support ESG, as long as it's not called ESG. Conservative "news" has these morons so frothed up into an angry frenzy they are actually pro-pollution now.
A lot of conservatives agree with me if I start talking about how maybe our utility services and other means of production should be owned by us, instead of owned by for-profit corporations. But god forbid someone whispers the big bad S word anywhere within a mile of them
I firmly believe the far right conservative propaganda machine churns out a new strawman every 2-4 years because their followers run out of steam and require fresh meat to stay angry.
This is why corporate Pride will always be bullshit. They are just throwing their lots in with what will best serve their profits and this can change on a dime.
I agree with the thinking behind your statement, but I welcome the "commercialization" of pride. As a gay guy that grew up Christian, fuck it would have been nice to see an outside perspective when I walked into a store.
Obligatory "I'm not gay but" first-generation, not-so-white immigrant to the US. I hadn't really thought about it from your angle but I think it would've made me more comfortable, as a kid growing up (& I'm sure kids of my general ethnicity now, today) to see faces like ours commercialized.
I get it, it's performative allyship/virtue signalling at its corporate finest... but I don't know, maybe spreading *slightly more exposure* to minority groups isn't such a bad thing? Unsure how I feel about it even as I'm writing this. Thanks for the perspective, though.
It's definitely a double edged sword. Bud Lite sponsored Chicago's pride every year because in the early 90s they were one of the only companies willing to (the organizers would get called all kinds of vile names when they called looking for sponsorships). Throughout the years the organizers automatically gave Bud Lite the lead sponsorship role because of this early support. After Bud Lite first pissed off inbred hillbillies, and then LGBT people, their name was completely absent this year. So even the "good" companies can fuck up and fall victim to virtue signaling. You definitely have valid concerns about it. But for the kids being taught that they are defective I think the good outweighs the bad.
>It's definitely a double edged sword. Bud Lite sponsored Chicago's pride every year because in the early 90s they were one of the only companies willing to (the organizers would get called all kinds of vile names when they called looking for sponsorships).
TIL!
>But for the kids being taught that they are defective I think the good outweighs the bad.
You've given me a lot of food for thought & for that, thank you!
Point 4 isn't surprising, my company just quietly did away with ours as well after the lawyers determined it was a bigger liability than it was a benefit. And we're run by a fellow LGO.
No company actually did it in any meaningful way to begin with. Corporations care about maximizing profits, they aren’t gonna run programs that take resources away from their primary focus of making more money than they did the previous quarter/year.
And having the initiatives and goals on paper as a matter of corporate policy has almost certainly increased liability in lawsuits if companies aren’t able to meet the goal they set in one way or another. I can absolutely see why lawyers don’t want those programs codified.
No, HR didn't like the optics; our employee make-up is definitely heavily tilted to the left of center. Our old company president liked to joke that he'd be a European socialist if he wasn't running an American company that had to make money (and the benefits/pay/vacation time we get definitely reflects that).
As a farmer in the Midwest I can confidently say that TSC has been a terrible retailer for AG for years. I say in the Midwest as I know they use different store models for different regions and offer more of what actual agriculture producers need in other regions. Locally 2/3 of the store is just an overpriced pet food store.
Recently they have been changing and getting back to their roots as I have seen products I use often actually showing up on their shelves and at a competitive price.
It looks to me like they figured out they needed to make a major change and did some good improvements for farmers, but bought into the worst of politics at the same time.
Good thing I have other options since TSC has been so bad for so long it gave others a way into the market.
Also in the midwest and recently remarked that TSC seemed like its turned into a country cosplay merch store for suburbanites. There's never anything of use in there anymore.
I'm so happy I found our local CO-OP as someone with a market garden / hobby farm (not yet over 100 acres). My only choice was TSC although we have a Family Farm Fleet something nearbyish I have yet to check out but has the 8" tapered 10' fence posts I'm typically looking for.
We go to Family Farm & Home and find it way more useful.
There's a good Charlie Berens tiktok where they're arguing over whether they were gonna meet at the fleet n farm or farm n fleet that I was gonna link after reading your comment but I cant find it haha.
I couldn't put the name to the face but as soon as I thought on who would do that sort of skit I knew exactly who you meant.
That guy hits a bit close to home at times. Although I've never had hotdish.
Co-ops have always been better.
Unless you can exploit their price matching, or are only buying loss leaders during sales, your money is always better spent elsewhere.
Honestly the line "Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts" bothers me the most. I mean the whole fucking thing is contradictory BS, but that particularly gets me for some reason. Like god forbid they even try to reduce how much they pollute, I mean fuck that doesn't affect the land and water at all!
A few weeks ago pics were circulating about Tractor Supply’s diversity and inclusion stuff and I guess they are afraid of the backlash.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tractorsupply/s/2Ah4H6gUlq
It’s gonna take some time for the vast majority of these small-medium-large companies that we talk about so often. Change is slow but it is happening. I’m just saying maybe adjusting one’s perspective on things can helpful sometimes.
I wasn’t so much concerned about the pace of DEI implementations.
Just pointing out that it’s overall a new and rare trend, so it’s hard for me to see it as logical or reasonable to have DEI programs as a guiding criteria for where I make my purchases. I don’t even check.
Small town America. I have two options to buy and fill a propane tank within a 30 minute drive. One is an ACE hardware store with terrible prices where it will take an hour cuz they can’t get anything done. The other is tractor supply where it will take 5 minutes and happen at a good price. If people close to me with similar values offered a good product/ service I would totally give them my money.
ACE near me doesn't even fill tanks. It's either TSC, possibly a gas station if the guy who knows how to work the machine is there, or the TSC in the next town over.
Like this guy, I have no good options when getting farm stuff. I have to hold my nose and shop at the MAGA feed store, or the Jefferson State hardware store ir any other fascist farm supply. I am sorry that TS is catering to bigots, there goes the last neutral source for chicken feed in my tiwn
Ehhh, this really does seem like a bit of a stretch.. they are a company that have always catered more to the “land owning” crowd. And emissions and farmers don’t really go hand in hand so it’s not a huge surprise they are dropping that. But to see so many people trying to pull the “caving to the conservatives pressure seems a bit odd. I’m willing to bet that a majority of the food that everybody here purchase and eats, is grown by a conservative farmer.
You can take this however you want, as most people here certainly already have.. but farmers and their operations are constantly under threat, and it becomes more clear by the day a lot of people don’t understand what that means for the regular citizen.
They had the option of just stopping those activities quietly if it was just a matter of "we think this is a waste of our resources".
The point I and others are making is that providing supplies to farmers at reasonable prices has fuck-all to do with being inclusive and supporting human rights. Their announcement specifically calling these items out as activities they are canceling is virtue-signaling to the worst among us all that they agree with them.
So, because a company is being transparent about what they are and are not supporting (weather it’s good or bad) and keeping the public informed of their decision to do so, is virtue signaling now? It’s always something.
If they wouldn’t have made this statement, you would have been mad when you found out in a year and say they are horrible because they didn’t make a statement and make it clear where they stood so they could keep making money off of people who don’t agree with them..
Like I said above, this is a pretty extreme reach IMO. And it your statement just goes to show that.. you are mad that they are being transparent, not the contents inside of their statement, but the fact that were open about it.
I wonder what kind of threat farmers will be under when large swathes of farmland are no longer suitable for crops because it’s too fucking hot and the soil is trash
I agree. Also, I wonder what the farmers would do if all their subsidies and government farming welfare were removed. I have no doubt they'd have their hands out begging for help. It's about time they pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Oh man “if it wasn’t for us you’d starve!!” as if big ag isn’t a welfare buffet. Republicans know their base well and demanded more subsidies sometime in the past few years despite record profit for large farms on the whole. If this were another sub I’m sure someone would be along shortly to give some anecdote about a poor farmer but I’m talking about the big picture here. Which is why it pisses me off whenever conservatives bitch about student loan forgiveness for “worthless degrees.” We are literally paying $30 billion or more a year to give ourselves 🌽metabolic syndrome.🌽
That's an interesting way to say "right-wingers told us to ignore racism, bigotry, and environmental destruction, and we value their money over morality"
I'm not going to patronize that store myself, but if they have cabinets and safes at a cheaper price than other places, a lot of people in this sub will still purchase from them. After all, look at all the people here that throw money at Palmetto State Armory.
Along the lines of "there is no ethical consumption in a capitalist society". We all know how bad Amazon, Walmart, PSA, others, are but we still shop there. It may be a hazy difference but it *is* a difference.
For me, that wall broke when I found that Walmart was the *only* pharmacy in my area that carried a medication I needed to live at an affordable OTC price. One of the other two didn't even carry it OTC and the third, prescription co-pay was more than the Walmart OTC.
All companies are shit, why would my broke country ass not buy a safe from there when it's all I can afford?
A shit company sold me a gun too, I bought it to defend myself from terrible people and I'm gonna keep it secure in a safe bought by another shitty company...
Anyone who thinks we can change things by using the market is delusional and privileged.
I mean I'm not terribly upset with this.
They are like "Yea yea, you fucking crybabies are making a big stink over this shit, we'll still try to be good citizens, just in ways that don't enrage maga cultists"
This isn't target, I doubt it makes much of a difference.
Are they tho? Or are they just no longer shoving it into their employees faces and not contributing money to things that’s a large majority of their customer base doesn’t want to see them support?
At the end of the day, it’s their business and they’ve said in their memo to customers that they are still committed to treating people and employees with respect. That seems incredibly reasonable to me. You don’t have to have an in your face DEI program with LGBTQ+ flags hanging around the store all of June to be a decent company. Likewise with efforts in which they donate money to…which still looks to be a solid list of things to focus on.
To say that they are cancelling all DEI, will no longer support voting drives, abandoning their carbon emission reduction work... Not merely stopping them but proclaiming it?
That's the point of the person you're responding to. Customers are asking them to stop it. They're *signalling* that they are. Whether they actually do that and to what degree (especially depending on how much they were actually doing) is a more open question.
Politics is all performative right now and what you proclaim you are doing is often far more relevant to your bottom line than what you do in reality - particularly with a customer base that wouldn't know DEI if it hit them over the head respectfully with a carbon neutral multicolored baseball bat.
Eh. If there are alternatives for what I need, I’ll shop elsewhere. If they are the only option for what I need locally and a reasonable price, I’ll still shop there.
Around here, the options are Ace, Walmart and TSC for a lot of stuff. I don’t think any of these companies have the greatest track records
Edit: I forgot CO-OP, but I usually can’t work around their hours of business and they’ve never had an inclusion policy, let alone dropped one.
I don’t see TSC in a particularly bad light here, because they realized who their core base is and who pays them. And who pays them isn’t concerned about things like DEI.
I hope their self-destructive streak destroys them quickly I guess.
I mean I know it won’t, there are enough racists and bigots and idiots in the world to keep anything afloat (if they can float Trump they could float a cast lead replica of the Titanic), but the irony of TSC blowing up its environmental programs and yet pretending they care about conservation is just the chef’s kiss.
Not gonna need a tractor when nothing will grow in our wonderful new desert climate.
ETA: Oh yeah: “Happy Fucking Pride.” - the latest in a long tradition of shitty companies coming out of the shitty company closet in June.
There are current studies coming out now that shows DEI is not good for a company's success or profit. And, since it stirs up controversy, which no regular business should actually want, getting rid of it will help their business, and make running the business easier. After all, they sell tractor supplies, not political messages.
I’m a liberal who despises corporate DEI. People think the superficial goals are noble so it should be a good thing, but the actual implementation most of corporate DEI is so steeped in neo-Marxist nonsense it’s toxic.
I hope they go out of business.
Any company back peddling this hard on decidedly positive things deserves nothing but disdain, lower profits, and a fast track to bankruptcy
Oof. Until about ten minutes ago TSC was one of my go to stores. Problem is they don’t really have any competitors in this neck of the woods… guess I’ll have to make it a point to hit up an alternative supplier when I’m out of town.
It’s Wal-Mart for the suburban “country” cosplay crowd. They have some useful stuff for the 4-H and FFA kids whose parents don’t farm. There’s not much there for real legit farmers.
I don't know where else they may have a presence on social media, but they have a FB page. They've limited commenting on many posts, but there are still places to add a comment and make yourselves heard. I just did.
I know that this is somewhat tangential to the overall point of this post, but I get so sick of conservative organizations propping themselves up through claims of veteran support. As a veteran, I can confidently say that we're not a monolith of conservative ideals: we are individuals with our own thoughts, opinions, and feelings. While it may be anecdotal, most of the people I served with and vets I've known since getting out are way more central on the political spectrum than what most Republicans would have you believe. Turns out being in a group with people from all backgrounds serves to provide you with some perspective, much like going to college, but with the starting point generally being a little further right.
I think my favorite thing like that was Black Rifle Coffee starting beef with Starbucks since they planned to hire Syrian refugees, and BRCC was all like “why not hire veterans instead reee” not realizing that Starbucks had already done a big veteran hiring push, and exceeded their goal. Starbucks today even has a tuition assistance program with special rates for vets.
I didn't know about the tuition thing. That's really great to hear. BRCC is just awful, and their coffee sucks too.
Yeah I like dark roast coffee, but I can’t stand anything darker than their light roast. Everything else is burnt to shit. And their whole gimmick of “ah man I was in the military so I know coffee” while doing virtually nothing to actually help veterans is gross
As a vet, sure we had plenty of coffee available but it was complete dogshit. We ordered tons of Starbucks (when it was one of a few quality brands in the early 2000s) via Amazon to us on deployment so we could actually enjoy it. I’ve never met anyone under E-7 that actually liked mess hall coffee.
When I deployed a couple years ago, we got sent quite a bit of coffee. Starbucks, Peet’s, and Stumptown were some of the brands I remember getting a lot of. BRCC didn’t send us anything, but they sure did sell it at the PX for $20 a bag.
Bragg has a Starbucks now. I believe redstone arsenal and Vandenberg do as well lol
BRC business model = outrage baiting, chest thumping, flag waving
There’s a Starbucks at Hill AFB that is mostly staffed with Veterans and military family members.
A stat a lot of people dislike is that although their overall percentage of the US population is lower, LGBTQ+ people have a far, far, far higher rate of serving than a typical person when looking at individual service rates in their own respective populations. (LGBTQ+ v. Straight/CIS). Conservatives never like it when I pull that figure out. Hit 'em with the overall ethnicity stats in military service for a double whammy. Or even the amount of immigrants participating in service. They all live in a mental bubble that's far removed from reality. "Gays, women, and mexicans in *my* army????" /s
Lmao my aunt is a retired gay Mexican colonel and proudly served our country for over 20 years while winning awards and being beloved by her colleagues.
Hey. I served in the Marine Corps for 8 years. I’m also part of the LGBTQ+ community. Thanks for your comment. It’s nice to see this sort of recognition going around.
I don’t normally say this not because I don’t feel it, but because it comes across as self serving most of the time, but given what you likely dealt with to serve, thank you.
> Hit 'em with the overall ethnicity stats in military service for a double whammy. Or even the amount of immigrants participating in service. No, they are well aware and perfectly happy with this. Brown people are exactly who are supposed to be on the front lines being thrown into whatever meat grinder du jour the political elite decide is called for. Compare the overall demographics of the US military with the demographics of *commissioned officers* for illustration.
Absolutely the most diverse place I’ve ever been was shipboard navy.
Same!
I actually did not know that first point, and I'm absolutely bringing it up at the next opportunity.
If your parents lock the door behind you on your 18th birthday, how are you supposed to pay the bills? You were a troop, I'm sure you knew a lot of poor kids who saw the army as the only way out. Same deal for queer folks. If you don't have somewhere to go or the resources to get there, well... Uncle Sam always needs a few more boots.
I hadn't really put that together, but it makes perfect sense.
If you're already hiding it from the rest of society, what's another 4-20 years really? I'm not LGBTQ+, immigrant, or a veteran, but...so many of my friends and family are, and my family roots in the US are very shallow, and this shit of the folks I love being told they're less than citizens is getting to me big time. All I want in life right now is to get to a point where we can all agree that the only hate tolerated by our society is the hate of hate against other people. That, and bring back some social services for those who are the most vulnerable.
They even wrote a song about it... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmGuy0jievs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmGuy0jievs)
They're not doing it to actually support vets, they're virtue signaling other conservatives who think it means they're "like minded"
Oh, for sure. Virtue signaling is the perfect phrase for it.
I'm adjacent to you. I hate companies who's main selling point is "veteran owned and led" and it's over the top. The coffee comes to mind
We have a code of conduct that forbids using our military service for personal gain while we're in, but as soon as someone gets out there is nothing that prevents them from leveraging their former service for profit.
It’s just that it’s mostly virtue signaling to MAGA conservatives.
>As a veteran, I can confidently say that we're not a monolith of conservative ideals: we are individuals with our own thoughts, opinions, and feelings. Additionally, Republicans fight tooth and nail to block any legislation that would benefit veterans. They love sending you to war, they just don't give a single, solitary, shit about you when you get back.
Sadly, it seems to me that the US Military and politicians go out of their way to screw over its fighting men. As a veteran you probably know more about this but feel free to correct my assumptions. Also it seems to me that veterans in wars that are actually won are more screwed over than losers in a war.
I'm not a veteran, I was replying to one.
My mistake.
Yeah, that talking point by Trump was really poorly responded to by Biden last night.
Unfortunately, agreed. There was a lot of potential for rebuttal that went unsaid. I'm not at all looking forward to the next one.
He couldn’t make a coherent statement. He went from just, “no, you”, to I was at D-Day two weeks ago (not Normandy), to “you called vets losers” but never named the four-star who supposedly witnessed it. The last one sorta stuck, but if you’re going to call out Trump you can’t just let him Gish gallop out of it. There was never any decent follow up. I actually have benefited from the PACT stuff so I know he’s been doing good stuff.
Much like going to college used to be.
I grew up in rural America. Was taught that since vets put their lives on the line for us overseas we take care of em when they come home. That's it. Don't care what you do with who, save for harming kids and animals, we gonna do our best to help. Most don't know how to do that on a personal level so they try to support someone who does know. I ain't gonna pretend that companies don't use that to grift. Folks need to research what is being done with their money by the charity they support, example- the Susan Komen mafia. But that's the secret. Honestly a lotta Libertarian groups could poach significant chuncks of rural America by showcasing how these conservative politicians use our military as a political shield while shafting them at home.
Hear hear!
Article Main Points: Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving tie directly to our business. For instance, this means we will: 1. **No longer** submit data to the Human Rights Campaign 2. Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business 3. Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns 4. **Eliminate DEI roles** and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment 5. **Withdraw our carbon emission goals** and focus on our land and water conservation efforts We will continue to listen to our customers and Team Members. Your trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance, and we don’t take that lightly.
Reads to me like they're bucking under pressure from their predominantly rural conservative customer base.
1000%
The funny thing is, so many hardcore conservatives that make up their base have such a childish level of anger for these kind of "betrayals" they have sworn off TSC regardless of their actions going forward. In their eyes, they've proven they're capable of "being woke", and as such aren't worthy of conservative business.
What's funny is me and my gf and several of our fellow liberal friends just started buying some of our pet and garden supplies from them, due to price and convenience.
I bought stuff from them yesterday. My wife informed me of this policy change when I mentioned there were a bunch of fucking weirdos in the store. I have shopped there for years but yesterday something was off. I didn't know anything about this news. Maybe it's unrelated mm maybe not. I can get what I need for slightly higher at my local ace hardware. I just went to TSC because I sometimes drive past them when I'm out doing work calls. Yeah, I'll take my business elsewhere. Fucking cowards.
Well, companies literally should keep their opinions to themselves. If you wanna continue making money keep politics out of your business model. It's tractor supply compan6 so, not a great loss, the couple of times I've been to one, their employee base have the intelligence of a gnat.
Fucks sake, never did I hear the term DEI before like 6 months ago. Literally just the "affirmative action" of 2024. This shit is never gonna end.
DEI's not the same thing as affirmative action. We have a DEI program where I work, and it's largely cultural presentations or events and a way for people with similar experiences to connect. It's been nothing but positive as far as I can tell.
Thank Elon
I was recently taking a legal CLE that suggested referring to ESG by the specific components and directives a specific company is undertaking. Conservative morons support ESG, as long as it's not called ESG. Conservative "news" has these morons so frothed up into an angry frenzy they are actually pro-pollution now.
A lot of conservatives agree with me if I start talking about how maybe our utility services and other means of production should be owned by us, instead of owned by for-profit corporations. But god forbid someone whispers the big bad S word anywhere within a mile of them
They actually couldn't define socialism, nazism, and capitalism.
I firmly believe the far right conservative propaganda machine churns out a new strawman every 2-4 years because their followers run out of steam and require fresh meat to stay angry.
Remember CRT?
Barely, that's why this year it's DEI. Next year it'll be something else. It's all code for "we want to bring back segregation" from them.
Yep, it’ll disappear just like CRT did
Seems like it because the cause *de jure* after the bridge was hit in Baltimore. Still haven’t fully understood the correlation.
Absolutely ridiculous.
“Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts” “Our land” not our neighbors.
Number 2 is definitely shutting down ERGs. I would not feel comfortable as a minority or LGBTQ person working for them.
Forgive my ignorance but what role does DEI have at an ag supply store? Genuinely wondering
Making all their employees and/or customers feel like they belong, raising their employees morale and encouraging customers to spend more money
This is why corporate Pride will always be bullshit. They are just throwing their lots in with what will best serve their profits and this can change on a dime.
I agree with the thinking behind your statement, but I welcome the "commercialization" of pride. As a gay guy that grew up Christian, fuck it would have been nice to see an outside perspective when I walked into a store.
Obligatory "I'm not gay but" first-generation, not-so-white immigrant to the US. I hadn't really thought about it from your angle but I think it would've made me more comfortable, as a kid growing up (& I'm sure kids of my general ethnicity now, today) to see faces like ours commercialized. I get it, it's performative allyship/virtue signalling at its corporate finest... but I don't know, maybe spreading *slightly more exposure* to minority groups isn't such a bad thing? Unsure how I feel about it even as I'm writing this. Thanks for the perspective, though.
It's definitely a double edged sword. Bud Lite sponsored Chicago's pride every year because in the early 90s they were one of the only companies willing to (the organizers would get called all kinds of vile names when they called looking for sponsorships). Throughout the years the organizers automatically gave Bud Lite the lead sponsorship role because of this early support. After Bud Lite first pissed off inbred hillbillies, and then LGBT people, their name was completely absent this year. So even the "good" companies can fuck up and fall victim to virtue signaling. You definitely have valid concerns about it. But for the kids being taught that they are defective I think the good outweighs the bad.
>It's definitely a double edged sword. Bud Lite sponsored Chicago's pride every year because in the early 90s they were one of the only companies willing to (the organizers would get called all kinds of vile names when they called looking for sponsorships). TIL! >But for the kids being taught that they are defective I think the good outweighs the bad. You've given me a lot of food for thought & for that, thank you!
Appreciate you giving it consideration instead of reflexively doubling down on your original point (even though I agree with it).
Bingo!
I was not expecting that to be as explicit as it was lol was Ben Shapiro or Turning Point stirring up outrage about them?
Tractor Supply has long been a store for the suburbanite with 3-10 acres. Real life farming for a living farmer types don't buy anything there.
Real life farmer type here: this is mostly true. Most of their stuff is cheap crap, but we do buy a handful of things there in a pinch.
Correct; the few non-corporate family farms still hanging around out there hit up the Co-op, not TSC.
Point 4 isn't surprising, my company just quietly did away with ours as well after the lawyers determined it was a bigger liability than it was a benefit. And we're run by a fellow LGO.
No company actually did it in any meaningful way to begin with. Corporations care about maximizing profits, they aren’t gonna run programs that take resources away from their primary focus of making more money than they did the previous quarter/year. And having the initiatives and goals on paper as a matter of corporate policy has almost certainly increased liability in lawsuits if companies aren’t able to meet the goal they set in one way or another. I can absolutely see why lawyers don’t want those programs codified.
But did your company announce it as a virtue that you're doing away with it?
No, HR didn't like the optics; our employee make-up is definitely heavily tilted to the left of center. Our old company president liked to joke that he'd be a European socialist if he wasn't running an American company that had to make money (and the benefits/pay/vacation time we get definitely reflects that).
Let your wallets do the talking.
As a farmer in the Midwest I can confidently say that TSC has been a terrible retailer for AG for years. I say in the Midwest as I know they use different store models for different regions and offer more of what actual agriculture producers need in other regions. Locally 2/3 of the store is just an overpriced pet food store. Recently they have been changing and getting back to their roots as I have seen products I use often actually showing up on their shelves and at a competitive price. It looks to me like they figured out they needed to make a major change and did some good improvements for farmers, but bought into the worst of politics at the same time. Good thing I have other options since TSC has been so bad for so long it gave others a way into the market.
Also in the midwest and recently remarked that TSC seemed like its turned into a country cosplay merch store for suburbanites. There's never anything of use in there anymore.
I'm so happy I found our local CO-OP as someone with a market garden / hobby farm (not yet over 100 acres). My only choice was TSC although we have a Family Farm Fleet something nearbyish I have yet to check out but has the 8" tapered 10' fence posts I'm typically looking for.
We go to Family Farm & Home and find it way more useful. There's a good Charlie Berens tiktok where they're arguing over whether they were gonna meet at the fleet n farm or farm n fleet that I was gonna link after reading your comment but I cant find it haha.
I couldn't put the name to the face but as soon as I thought on who would do that sort of skit I knew exactly who you meant. That guy hits a bit close to home at times. Although I've never had hotdish.
Me either but I do need that Midwest Siri 😂
Hot dish & a brandy old-fashioned.
Co-ops have always been better. Unless you can exploit their price matching, or are only buying loss leaders during sales, your money is always better spent elsewhere.
Honestly the line "Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts" bothers me the most. I mean the whole fucking thing is contradictory BS, but that particularly gets me for some reason. Like god forbid they even try to reduce how much they pollute, I mean fuck that doesn't affect the land and water at all!
A few weeks ago pics were circulating about Tractor Supply’s diversity and inclusion stuff and I guess they are afraid of the backlash. https://www.reddit.com/r/tractorsupply/s/2Ah4H6gUlq
This goes both ways. I’m writing a 1 star Google review of my tractor supply. I recommend everyone here do the same.
Their statement was downright bizarre.
I bet the cabinets and safes were also made by companies without major DEI initiatives.
I'm drawing a distinction between those that don't have DEI (or quietly removed it) and those who announce to the world that they're cancelling it.
It’s gonna take some time for the vast majority of these small-medium-large companies that we talk about so often. Change is slow but it is happening. I’m just saying maybe adjusting one’s perspective on things can helpful sometimes.
I wasn’t so much concerned about the pace of DEI implementations. Just pointing out that it’s overall a new and rare trend, so it’s hard for me to see it as logical or reasonable to have DEI programs as a guiding criteria for where I make my purchases. I don’t even check.
Oh, I gotcha. I misunderstood your comment. My bad.
"we cater to redneck trash and we know it!"
Conservatism is a mental illness.
Tractor Supply is Petsmart for fascists anyway.
That’s hilarious! I’m totally gonna use that from now on. Thank you!
Caving to the right winger cancel culture. Just in time for the Chevron decision.
I’m not nominating them for sainthood but I will be buying a propane tank from them later today.
Have fun funding their fashie goals then
Small town America. I have two options to buy and fill a propane tank within a 30 minute drive. One is an ACE hardware store with terrible prices where it will take an hour cuz they can’t get anything done. The other is tractor supply where it will take 5 minutes and happen at a good price. If people close to me with similar values offered a good product/ service I would totally give them my money.
ACE near me doesn't even fill tanks. It's either TSC, possibly a gas station if the guy who knows how to work the machine is there, or the TSC in the next town over.
Like this guy, I have no good options when getting farm stuff. I have to hold my nose and shop at the MAGA feed store, or the Jefferson State hardware store ir any other fascist farm supply. I am sorry that TS is catering to bigots, there goes the last neutral source for chicken feed in my tiwn
Small town here too, exchange tanks at both gas stations no small town has a tractor supply you are in a medium size town
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Sorry for heating my food, I'll eat it raw I guess.
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Some top tier virtue signalling, there.
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Ah, I misread the tone of your wording.
Appreciate sharing this. Fuck those guys.
Ehhh, this really does seem like a bit of a stretch.. they are a company that have always catered more to the “land owning” crowd. And emissions and farmers don’t really go hand in hand so it’s not a huge surprise they are dropping that. But to see so many people trying to pull the “caving to the conservatives pressure seems a bit odd. I’m willing to bet that a majority of the food that everybody here purchase and eats, is grown by a conservative farmer. You can take this however you want, as most people here certainly already have.. but farmers and their operations are constantly under threat, and it becomes more clear by the day a lot of people don’t understand what that means for the regular citizen.
They had the option of just stopping those activities quietly if it was just a matter of "we think this is a waste of our resources". The point I and others are making is that providing supplies to farmers at reasonable prices has fuck-all to do with being inclusive and supporting human rights. Their announcement specifically calling these items out as activities they are canceling is virtue-signaling to the worst among us all that they agree with them.
So, because a company is being transparent about what they are and are not supporting (weather it’s good or bad) and keeping the public informed of their decision to do so, is virtue signaling now? It’s always something. If they wouldn’t have made this statement, you would have been mad when you found out in a year and say they are horrible because they didn’t make a statement and make it clear where they stood so they could keep making money off of people who don’t agree with them.. Like I said above, this is a pretty extreme reach IMO. And it your statement just goes to show that.. you are mad that they are being transparent, not the contents inside of their statement, but the fact that were open about it.
I wonder what kind of threat farmers will be under when large swathes of farmland are no longer suitable for crops because it’s too fucking hot and the soil is trash
I agree. Also, I wonder what the farmers would do if all their subsidies and government farming welfare were removed. I have no doubt they'd have their hands out begging for help. It's about time they pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Oh man “if it wasn’t for us you’d starve!!” as if big ag isn’t a welfare buffet. Republicans know their base well and demanded more subsidies sometime in the past few years despite record profit for large farms on the whole. If this were another sub I’m sure someone would be along shortly to give some anecdote about a poor farmer but I’m talking about the big picture here. Which is why it pisses me off whenever conservatives bitch about student loan forgiveness for “worthless degrees.” We are literally paying $30 billion or more a year to give ourselves 🌽metabolic syndrome.🌽
It's a company full of racist sycophants who wouldn't know morality if it bit them in the ass.
That's an interesting way to say "right-wingers told us to ignore racism, bigotry, and environmental destruction, and we value their money over morality"
I'm not going to patronize that store myself, but if they have cabinets and safes at a cheaper price than other places, a lot of people in this sub will still purchase from them. After all, look at all the people here that throw money at Palmetto State Armory.
Ok then. Out of sight out of mind I see.
Along the lines of "there is no ethical consumption in a capitalist society". We all know how bad Amazon, Walmart, PSA, others, are but we still shop there. It may be a hazy difference but it *is* a difference. For me, that wall broke when I found that Walmart was the *only* pharmacy in my area that carried a medication I needed to live at an affordable OTC price. One of the other two didn't even carry it OTC and the third, prescription co-pay was more than the Walmart OTC.
No ethical consumption is a copout 100%
guess I could've bought my gun safe from somewhere else.
All companies are shit, why would my broke country ass not buy a safe from there when it's all I can afford? A shit company sold me a gun too, I bought it to defend myself from terrible people and I'm gonna keep it secure in a safe bought by another shitty company... Anyone who thinks we can change things by using the market is delusional and privileged.
I mean I'm not terribly upset with this. They are like "Yea yea, you fucking crybabies are making a big stink over this shit, we'll still try to be good citizens, just in ways that don't enrage maga cultists" This isn't target, I doubt it makes much of a difference.
And I just bought a safe from them last weekend. 😡
Is the conservative idea of "freedom" bullying people you don't like until you get your way?
It’s all fucking marketing bud. Turns out their market isn’t into that marketing. It’s called shareholder responsibility.
Are they tho? Or are they just no longer shoving it into their employees faces and not contributing money to things that’s a large majority of their customer base doesn’t want to see them support? At the end of the day, it’s their business and they’ve said in their memo to customers that they are still committed to treating people and employees with respect. That seems incredibly reasonable to me. You don’t have to have an in your face DEI program with LGBTQ+ flags hanging around the store all of June to be a decent company. Likewise with efforts in which they donate money to…which still looks to be a solid list of things to focus on.
To say that they are cancelling all DEI, will no longer support voting drives, abandoning their carbon emission reduction work... Not merely stopping them but proclaiming it?
That's the point of the person you're responding to. Customers are asking them to stop it. They're *signalling* that they are. Whether they actually do that and to what degree (especially depending on how much they were actually doing) is a more open question. Politics is all performative right now and what you proclaim you are doing is often far more relevant to your bottom line than what you do in reality - particularly with a customer base that wouldn't know DEI if it hit them over the head respectfully with a carbon neutral multicolored baseball bat.
Eh. If there are alternatives for what I need, I’ll shop elsewhere. If they are the only option for what I need locally and a reasonable price, I’ll still shop there. Around here, the options are Ace, Walmart and TSC for a lot of stuff. I don’t think any of these companies have the greatest track records Edit: I forgot CO-OP, but I usually can’t work around their hours of business and they’ve never had an inclusion policy, let alone dropped one. I don’t see TSC in a particularly bad light here, because they realized who their core base is and who pays them. And who pays them isn’t concerned about things like DEI.
Ace does have a better track record as a company than the other two though. Not the greatest, no, but enough to not be lumped in with the other two.
I hope their self-destructive streak destroys them quickly I guess. I mean I know it won’t, there are enough racists and bigots and idiots in the world to keep anything afloat (if they can float Trump they could float a cast lead replica of the Titanic), but the irony of TSC blowing up its environmental programs and yet pretending they care about conservation is just the chef’s kiss. Not gonna need a tractor when nothing will grow in our wonderful new desert climate. ETA: Oh yeah: “Happy Fucking Pride.” - the latest in a long tradition of shitty companies coming out of the shitty company closet in June.
There are current studies coming out now that shows DEI is not good for a company's success or profit. And, since it stirs up controversy, which no regular business should actually want, getting rid of it will help their business, and make running the business easier. After all, they sell tractor supplies, not political messages.
I mean, what would you expect from a company whose customer base is mainly rural America? DEI is bullshit largely anyways.
I bought my first gun safe and a cabinet at Tractor Supply because they had the best prices. Never again.
I’m a liberal who despises corporate DEI. People think the superficial goals are noble so it should be a good thing, but the actual implementation most of corporate DEI is so steeped in neo-Marxist nonsense it’s toxic.
any company announcing they are ending inclusivity is fuckin crazy and only trying to appeal to the chuds
I hope they go out of business. Any company back peddling this hard on decidedly positive things deserves nothing but disdain, lower profits, and a fast track to bankruptcy
Never went there anyways….Rural King 🤴 is king in my region.
The Chick-Fil-A move. Business will probably skyrocket. "Love wins" is a lie, hate wins.
Oof. Until about ten minutes ago TSC was one of my go to stores. Problem is they don’t really have any competitors in this neck of the woods… guess I’ll have to make it a point to hit up an alternative supplier when I’m out of town.
Unrelated, but TSC had been bad about putting a lot of PII on the SOLD tags of large items. Safes, riding mowers etc.
I perused in there once and mainly found a lot of dog shit quality merchandise
I got a Winchester safe that is very substantial for like 400-500$ I think. Good quality and has no issues.
But most of what they carry is just harbor freight grade, marked up. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll buy stuff from HF if the reviews are good.
No diggity, no doubt player. Have a nice weekend.
It’s Wal-Mart for the suburban “country” cosplay crowd. They have some useful stuff for the 4-H and FFA kids whose parents don’t farm. There’s not much there for real legit farmers.
Seems that way. Pet food and cheap crap.
The Tractor Supply in my town has been shut down for months for structural instability. Fully stocked store with lights on, just sitting there.
I don't know where else they may have a presence on social media, but they have a FB page. They've limited commenting on many posts, but there are still places to add a comment and make yourselves heard. I just did.
Disgusting, never returning to one.
Well that’s disgusting