There is a story circulating among certain websites that claims that a Georgia Walmart refused to bake a cake for a police officer. The story alleges that the store bakery refused the request because the customer wanted the controversial phrase “Blue Lives Matter” written on it.
Since being originally posted on Facebook, the story has gone viral in certain circles, even being picked up by well known conservative radio personality Todd Starnes. You will not believe what is happening now.
The story being reported is that Walmart employees at a store in McDonough, Georgia refused to bake a “Blue Lives Matter” cake for a police officer because they considered the message to be racist.
The tale has its origin in social media, where a local police officer first made the claim on his Facebook account. In Taylor Wilkies’ Facebook post, the story goes like this:
“My buddy’s sister went to Walmart in McDonough, Georgia to have a cake made for their father’s retirement party. She asked Walmart to make a ‘thin blue line’ cake to commemorate his extensive and honorable service as a dedicated police officer. Walmart refused to honor her request due to it being ‘racist’. To me, this is appalling. People choose to make everything about race. I’m so tired of it. It’s literally exhausting for me to think about now.”
The Facebook post was liked and forwarded until it went viral, at which point radio personality Todd Starnes picked it up. Inviting the woman who allegedly ordered the cake onto his program, he asked her thoughts about it, to which she responded “I was so shocked. didn’t know what to do or say or anything. I was trying not to lose my temper or make a scene. I was disappointed. I go to Walmart all the time, at least once a week spend hundreds of dollars. I just wanted to make my dad a cake to show how much i appreciated him.”
In response to the outrage, Walmart issued the following statement:
“Our goal is to always take care of customers,” the spokesperson said. “But, sometimes we misstep. We’re glad we were able to connect with the family to apologize and make this right.”
The story does not end there however, as a number of independent sources contacted the Walmart in question and discovered that no such incident had occurred.
One source reported that he called the store and asked about the incident, and that an employee familiar with the claim denied that it took place.
“She was very polite, was familiar with the story, and denied that any of this was true. I asked her if I wanted to have the bakery decorate a cake depicting the thin blue line would they do it, and she said that they would be more than glad to, that it’s ridiculous for anyone to make this claim, and that she doesn’t understand why someone would make it.”
To further erode the likely truthfulness of the story is a follow up post made by Wilkes on 24 September 2016 (the date of the putative party) about Walmart’s response to the controversy, confusingly reporting that the Walmart manager’s offer to step in and make the cake had been turned down because a cake had already been obtained from Kroger, which contradicted the Fox News account stating that the manager had already produced a cake that looked “terrible” but had to be used because “there’s no time to go elsewhere”.