Wal-Mart cans contract with Paula Deen
by June 26, 2013 6:30 pm 144 views
It’s been a bad week for Southern cooking celebrity Paula Deen, as lucrative corporate endorsements continue to slip through her hands, the most recent being a multimillion dollar contract with Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The world’s largest retailer said in a statement on its website that it will not place new orders with Paula Deen Enterprises beyond what it has committed for any of Deen’s products, which include southern-themed cookware, place settings and floral aprons.
In addition to Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest hog producer, the Food Network, part of, said last week it will sever ties with the chef.
The star of “Paula’s Home Cooking” and “Paula’s Best Dishes” became under fire when she said in court documents made public last week that she has used a derogatory term for black people.
The losses to Deen’s empire from the recent controversy is estimated at $16 million.
Deen has publicly apologized for using a racial slur which said she occurred 30 years ago.
Two month ago, Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin awarded Deen with a key to city as she was a featured guest at the American Heart Association’s annual Heart Walk event in Northwest Arkansas.
At that time Deen expected to launch a line of healthy food that would have been carried by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.