Responding to that boycott effort, Tractor Supply has refocused its business away from woke and LGBTQ causes and back to its original mission: farm equipment, and garden and pet supplies. The company had been drifting into a cultural minefield – sponsoring pride events, setting climate goals and the like – when it caught the attention of film producer, podcaster and customer Robby Starbuck. He launched a campaign to boycott the chain until it came back – and Friday, it came back.
"This is the first Fortune 300 company in our lifetimes to go backwards on ESG*, DEI and all these woke causes and donations – in record speed, mind you," he tells AFN.
In a statement, the chain said it would no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign for its annual "gay"-friendly ratings, it would eliminate its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and it would abandon its carbon emission goals.
"They're going to stop funding all of these woke causes," Starbuck explains, "and instead they're going to fund things that are nonpartisan in nature."
Specifically, Tractor Supply said it will do the following:
- "No longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign
- Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business
- Further focus on rural America priorities including ag education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns
- Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment [and]
- Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts."
The activist says the goal of the boycott was never to put Tractor Supply out of business, but to "restore" the company to what America used to be: "a sane country where everybody just got to get along and companies did what companies do – make great products [and] have great customer service …. That's how you win."
He adds that the win sends a strong message to the rest of corporate America about a "new standard" that corporations and their CEOs are going to have to reckon with.
"They're going to have to understand that they may be next," he explains. "If you get strategic and look at companies that depend on that 'middle America' vote, that depend on you walking into that store – those are the companies where you can extract change first."
And according to Starbuck, a "by-proxy effect" will be that other companies will start to make changes because they now see that "a certain type of 'doing business' is toxic."
* ESG (environmental, social, and governance)
