Walmart Apologizes for ‘Let it Snow’ Cocaine-using Santa Sweater

Published on December 10, 2019

Walmart Canada issued an apology for an “ugly” Christmas sweater depicting Old Saint Nick with lines of cocaine, featured on its Canadian website.

Ho, Ho, Ho: Let it Snow…Blow?

The “ugly” Christmas sweater showcased a deranged Santa Clause sitting on the couch with a straw in his right hand, three lines of “grade A, Colombian snow” in front of him, along with the phrase “Let it snow.” 

 “We all know how snow works. It’s white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America. That’s bad news for jolly old St. Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole,” read the product’s description on Walmart’s website. 

“That’s why Santa really likes to savour the moment when he gets his hands on some quality, grade A, Colombian snow. He packs it in perfect lines on his coffee table and then takes a big whiff to smell the high-quality aroma of the snow.”

The drug infused holiday sweater raised some eyebrows as the big-box retailer received mixed responses on social media, prompting Walmart to pull the product off its website and issue an apology.

“These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website,” a spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday. “We have removed these products from our marketplace. We apologize for any unintended offense this may have caused.”

Tweets Keep the Coked-out Santa Sweater Alive

But this did not stop social media users from taking a jab on Twitter and commenting on the sweater.

“Yall. Look at this description for this Christmas sweater from Walmart,” tweeted @HurrbaSousJohn, poking at the product’s comical description on Walmart’s website.

https://twitter.com/HurrbaSousJohn/status/1203353309396029440?s=20

Another user tweeted, “Wow #Walmart a fool for this one…check out the descriptions on this sweater lol.”

Walmart Faced Similar Scrutiny in 2017 

Walmart’s Marketplace allows any third-party vendor to sell their items, similar to eBay or Amazon.

But allowing third-party vendors has its flaws. I mean, just look at the incident in 2017, when a vendor labeled a product “N****R BROWN”.

One user tweeted, “This is racist AF #BoycottWalmart…I demand that #Walmart find the person who posted this like this and fire them immediately.”

The company has since apologized for the offensive slur used by third-party vendor: Pixnor.

“We are very sorry and appalled that this third-party seller listed their item with this description on our online marketplace.  It is a clear violation of our policy, and has been removed, and we are investigating the seller to determine how this could have happened.”

And according to a BET article, the shopping retailer tried to cover up the racist description but forgot to change the URL. Which unquestionable outraged many.

And although the cap was not sold and shipped by the retailer, BET posed the question: why isn’t Walmart vetting or looking into what vendors are selling?

Kevin Pichinte is a staff writer at Grit Daily. Based in Los Angeles, he is a news associate at ABC7 and was formerly a digital news intern at NBC7 and TLM20. At Grit Daily, he covers entertainment and culture news.

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