PANAMA CITY, Florida — A Florida Walmart is removing a 9/11-themed display after a photo of it surfaced online, sparking outrage on social media.
Twitter user Shawn Richard tweeted a photo of the display on Tuesday.
Florida c'mon man pic.twitter.com/HU4y2rxgFG
— chip malfunction (@online_shawn) September 6, 2016
He told BuzzFeed News that: “We stopped and stared at it like, oh my God. Nobody seemed to be noticing it, it wasn’t very crowded, and I got the feeling that it had just been assembled. So we took some pics and went on our way.”
His tweet has been retweeted over 2,500 times.
Many were not happy.
https://twitter.com/erickabakoff/status/773237008084918272
https://twitter.com/NitroRad/status/773271561709162497
@catovitch I am going to assume their sentiment is genuine but the manager didn't think how tacky it is.
— cat watch (@andbaker) September 6, 2016
OrlandoWeekly.com reports that Charles Crowson, a spokesman for Walmart, said that the display was located in a Panama City store. He also said it was being taken down.
The website also reports that Coke typically approaches Walmart with display ideas, and they are then either approved or denied. Walmart did approve this display, he said.