One of the latest and most direct blows to proponents of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) came late last month from Tractor Supply, the Brentwood, Tennessee-based farm products and home improvement retailer.
After a social media blitz led by conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who decried Tractor Supply’s “woke agenda,” the company—which earned a 95 rating from the Human Rights Campaign in 2023 for its LGBTQ+-friendly workforce protections, benefits, and culture—all but obliterated its DE&I efforts.
“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them,” Tractor Supply announced in a statement on X on June 27. “We have taken this feedback to heart.”
The company wrote it would stop submitting workforce data to the Human Rights Campaign, “eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals,” and “stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals.”
Less than two weeks later, on July 10, at a session during The Lead Summit conference in New York, a retail executive was making a case for DE&I, and it will come as no surprise that she wasn’t exactly lauding the company.
Kimberly Lee Minor, CEO of the Women of Color Retail Alliance, noted that she’d recently been asked about Tractor Supply retreating from its diversity and inclusion efforts.
“I said, ‘Well, I think that creates a white space for another company to come in who understands the world is very diverse,’” Minor said during the session.
Retail Brew asked Tractor Supply to respond to Minor, and to the fact that The National Black Farmers Association is calling on Tractor Supply President and CEO Hal Lawton to resign. The company declined to comment.
Diverse in reverse: At The Lead conference, Minor made a case for diversity efforts onstage in a discussion with Maloni Goss, head of insights at Chanel.
While the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 is broadly credited with spurring companies to bolster their DE&I efforts, Minor noted that “recent events seem a stark reversal of that trend.”
Following the US Supreme Court striking down affirmative action by college admission programs in 2023, “we’ve observed widespread layoffs of chief diversity officers with major corporations,” Minor said.
Home Depot, Wayfair, and DoorDash were among companies that slashed their DE&I teams by 50% or more, according to Revelio data cited by the Washington Post.
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At the brand level, Bud Light faced a conservative firestorm after collaborating with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, as did Target for its Pride Month displays, which it curtailed both last year and this year.
Some brands have remained steadfast when it comes to representation, though, and Chanel’s Goss pointed to a recent report in WWD that makeup brand Rabanne had named singer and actor Troye Sivan as its first global makeup brand ambassador.
“I love it,” Goss said. “It’s overdue to have a male face in makeup, and I think it’s not by accident because there’s a lot of research that tells us that Gen Z in particular, is really excited about genderless brands and brands that don’t really box them in.”
Hire power: While Tractor Supply is pointedly distancing itself from the HRC and the positive marks it had earned for being an LGBTQ+-friendly employer, Minor said that retail brands hoping to attract young talent best not follow suit.
“The majority of Gen Z care about this,” said Minor, pointing to a Monster survey where 83% of Gen Z job candidates said employers’ commitment to diversity and inclusion was an important factor in them choosing where to work.
“If you’re not setting yourself up to really create a culture that makes that generation feel comfortable, who are you?” Goss added. “How are you going to recruit talent?”
While the backlash is undeniable, retailers should “break away from some of the noise that you see in the media,” she continued. “We’re in a really polarized time in our country, but you also need to look at the data and take a step back and say, ‘Are we creating a workplace that people are going to want to be a part of?’”
Something those diversity-craving candidates might not find encouraging, however, is who leads the retail companies they’re considering.
Among current CEOs of the National Retail Federation’s top 25 retail companies by sales, 21 are white men and only two are women. Not one is a woman of color.