A shirt that was being sold at Walmart (WMT) mixed up two states with very different outlines.
Up until Monday the retailer was selling a Russell Athletic T-shirt that featured the logo of the Maryland Terrapins, the University of Maryland’s team commonly called the Terps. Unfortunately the Maryland logo sat on top of an outline of Massachusetts, which didn’t get past Twitter.
It was first noticed by someone on Twitter last summer:
https://twitter.com/Victoria_Owens8/status/620723512240664576
But it wasn’t brought into the spotlight until the end of March when another person posted a picture of the shirt next to outlines of both Maryland and Massachusetts, illustrating how drastic the oversight was.
Dear @Walmart I want to inform you that you're selling UMD shirts with the state of Massachusetts on them. pic.twitter.com/RjzK4CdOHH
— Sam Ficco (@Samficco) March 30, 2016
Dear @Walmart I want to inform you that you're selling UMD shirts with the state of Massachusetts on them. pic.twitter.com/RjzK4CdOHH
— Sam Ficco (@Samficco) March 30, 2016
Two Walmart employees responded. The first identified herself as “Marie” and attempted to explain the shirt by saying that the outlines of the two states are pretty similar. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to fool the Twitterverse.
@Samficco On the map, MA and MD are shaped somewhat similarly with the exception of that dip. Thanks for reaching out, Samantha! -Marie
— Walmart (@Walmart) March 31, 2016
@Samficco On the map, MA and MD are shaped somewhat similarly with the exception of that dip. Thanks for reaching out, Samantha! -Marie
— Walmart (@Walmart) March 31, 2016
https://twitter.com/gordonrachel/status/716740805298425856
https://twitter.com/hieronymus_burp/status/717040739549483008
The final response came from “Sonny” who acknowledged the mistake with a fitting turtle joke:
@Samficco We’re so embarrassed we may never stick our head out of our shell again! Thanks for guiding this lost Terrapin back to MD! -Sonny
— Walmart (@Walmart) April 4, 2016
@Samficco We’re so embarrassed we may never stick our head out of our shell again! Thanks for guiding this lost Terrapin back to MD! -Sonny
— Walmart (@Walmart) April 4, 2016
Walmart has since apologized for the mix up. “We are working with Russell Athletic to determine how this happened and in the meantime are removing the shirt from our stores,” the retailer told the Washington Post. “We understand the pride Marylanders feel for the Terps, and apologize for the mistake.”