Woolworths runs into Christian backlash on Facebook

Just because Christians appropriated the pagan festival of what is now called Christmas, it doesn’t mean it is only important to Christians (I realise that is not the opinion of the author necessarily )

I find it interesting that some Christians require a certain shop to run an area of their business at a loss, due to some strange form of ethical imperative – it makes absolutely no sense to me. No one is banning the magazines, or condemning the opinions expressed in them, it is a business decision based on the fact that not enough people are buying the magazines.

It would be the same for me to complain if Pick & Pay stopped selling peppadews, because in my world view peppadews express an integral part of the fabric of the universe. But I wouldn’t do that because I am rational.

It’s a shame that the people who run the Woolworths social media presence have to deal with an issue created when an irrational minority dominate conversations and experiences at the expense of the majority.

A friend of mine had this to say: Fellow Followers of Jesus, so what if Woolies no longer stocks your favorite ‘religious’ magazine. Solution: Read the Bible you already own.

He’s right you know…

Isn’t it interesting how the corporate response is always the same with the same result and noone ever seems to learn. Ask BP, Nestle, Dell, Kryptonite etc.

The response is to try control the conversation the result is backlash.

There is no point in trying to control the conversation – let it run. Take part in it by all means but control is an illusion. We have already lost control of our brands.

If you leave it what will happen is that the reactionary fires will die down and the conversation will become far more fair and balanced – and then if you listen carefully you will hear what your customers want.

Eish. I feel for their poor ORM and SM marketing people. Imagine managing that page today? Makes my toes curl.

@Jacobus I know you’re probably joking, but of course it has nothing to do with the media tribunal – it’s a private business.

Which leads to a further point regarding whether or not to delete wall posts etc. If someone was writing hate speech, or another kind of radical minority view that was irrational and inflammatory, no one would have any questions about whether or not it should be removed.

I say, as a strong believe in free speech, that I would have no problem with Woolworth’s removing a lot of the posts…that’s not to say that they should from a Social Media Strategy point of view though…

“As an octopus fan, I am SHOCKED that Woolworths REFUSES to sell Cephalopod Mollusc magazines. How DARE they!” What next … stocking whale meat?!?!

Bloody ridiculous! Easter and Christmas have very little to do with religion these days. It is a now an international commercial holiday that are even celebrated by atheists! … surely as Christians you all have far more worthy and noble endeavours that you can spend your energies on!!

Come talk to us Woolworths – we have Christians on our network.
http://www.instantgrass.com/street-grass/dear-woolworths/

aah, facebook. everybody’s everyday tabloid!

I use to like Woolworths…

But now I love them!

The unfortunate thing about social media is you can never really assure the quality of people responding.
I suppose Julius Caesar had it right when he was after the masses and not the educated as there are far less educated ones around.

Perhaps that is one thing to really keep in mind in today’s society that you are not dealing with people necessarily with intellect and the random Joe will get worked up and shout about just nearly anything.

I love the comment about the Christian magazines vs the celebration of Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that they don’t cell Christian magazines is rather disturbing as Woolworths opened a new can of worms of religious debates. But my interest lies with the link between his statement and Christmas that originated as a pagan worship that pre-dates the birth of Jesus completely. In fact this started as an event called Saturnalia which began during the same time as December 25th and was adopted by the Romans. The event was characterised by gift giving, feasting, singing, etc. It was only 336 AD that Constantine converted this into a Christian holiday, but in doing so, keeping the original worship events so that he would not lose those true to Rome, even those with their strange habits.

Perhaps, in retrospect, this poor sod does have a point, definitely one he didn’t intend on making, however simply laying down rules such as these do exclude large groups or societies. The lesson learn here for me is you’re gonna take a stand against any one group; whether it be political, religious, social or anti-social, you are merely alienating this group and by doing so losing your customer base.

In all fairness, Woolworths sell really good food and really good clothing (For old people). I don’t shop at Woolies for my weekly magazines, there are other places for that. To be fair I don’t ever even recall seeing any magazines at Woolies.

Besides, when last have you walked into a Christian bookstore and found your Weekly dose of FHM. You won’t because its contra the message they are communicating. Perhaps in today’s society Woolworths don’t want to relate themselves with any specific group and only to the general public. If they do however start stocking the ‘Suicide Bombers Weekly Digest’ I will be worried.

Really, did you really think there was Woolies mission to become the greatest evangelists of all time and spread the good news through the quality of wine they sell?! No —- they are out to get all they can from you. If you have buck, they want you to give it to them. Well they will take alot more as their stuff is really expensive, but good food non the less.

So lets all stop living in our little bubbles and get over ourselves. Woolies is out to make money, not sell religion.

Does anyone think that perhaps this was stoked/kicked off by the magazine publishers? Seems like they had the most to lose here..

if rejecting Christian magazine is seen as rejecting god then is rejecting magazines of other faith groups also seen as rejecting god? If christians have the “right” to have their magazines on shelves (and the stockist has no say) then how about “Atheist Weekly”? or “Skeptics Review”?