At the company’s annual meeting, they voted strongly against a proposal from a conservative activist group that challenged diversity, equity and inclusion policies at Costco.
The vote was seen as an early test of investor views about the value of corporate DEI programs, which many companies added or beefed up starting in 2020 amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
President Trump has already introduced anti-DEI initiatives, claiming they are unfair and distracting. Ahead of him being voted in, US companies like Ford and John Deere had already rowed back on DEI policies.
‘I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed,’ Trump said last summer in an interview with Time.
Meanwhile, vocal figures on social media, like Robby Starbuck, have also pushed for boycotts of so-called ‘woke’ companies. It has forced the likes of John Deere, Walmart and Ford to scale back or ditch their commitments.
Costco, however, is standing its ground. The company’s board had urged investors to reject an investigation into whether if DEI policies harmed the retailer, for example by forcing it to overlook the best candidates.
More than 98 percent of the shareholders voted against it on Thursday.
