Wal-Mart Eating Crow
A recent Florida Supreme Court ruling that upheld a $2.16 million
verdictagainst Wal-Mart for illegally selling ammunition to minors
who used thebullets to kill a Pensacola man, seemed to support
Grammy Award-winning singerSheryl Crow in her on-going battle with
the discount giant over guns andchildren.
It was back in 1996 when Wal-Mart shocked the music industry by
refusing tostock Crow’s self-titled release because of offending
lyrics from “Love Is aGood Thing”: “Watch out sister, Watch out
brother/Watch our children as theykill each other/With a gun they
bought at the Wal-Mart discount stores.”
Wal-Mart and other family value discounters such as K-Mart and
Caldor routinely refuse to sell records laced with profanity or
objectionable art. But Wal-Mart was the first chain to boycott an
album because company officials were offended by lyrics about their
own stores. At the time, a Wal-Mart spokesman pointed out the chain
had a strict policy against selling guns to minors. The ban removed
Sheryl Crow from every store in the Wal-Mart chain, which accounts
for nearly one out of every ten records sold in America.(Crow’s
debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, has remained in Wal-Mart’s
storesthroughout the controversy.)
But the Florida court decision, which came in late July, seemed
to back upCrow’s claim in “Love Is a Good Thing” that Wal-Mart has
been culpable formurders committed by minors. The case stemmed from
a 1991 murder-for-hire casein which an employee at an auto parts
store hired three teens to kill theemployee’s manager. The teens
bought their .32 caliber bullets at Wal-Mart,despite an existing
federal law that, according to the Associated Press, “bansthe sale
of handgun bullets to anyone under 21.”
According to a spokesman at A&M Records, Crow has no comment
on the ruling.Her new album, The Globe Sessions, will be in stores
in Sept. 29. Wal-Mart isexpected to stock it.