BENTONVILLE — As pressure mounts for South Carolina lawmakers to order the Confederate flag off the statehouse, the nation’s largest retailer told CNN all Confederate flag merchandise would be removed from its stores.

Walmart.com currently carries the Confederate flag as well as attire featuring the flag’s design, such as T-shirts and belt buckles. A search for “confederate flag” on the company’s website Monday showed several items as “out of stock.”

Walmart announced the decision to pull Confederate flag merchandise after being asked about it by CNN.

”We never want to offend anyone with the products that we offer. We have taken steps to remove all items promoting the confederate flag from our assortment — whether in our stores or on our web site,” said Walmart spokesman Brian Nick. “We have a process in place to help lead us to the right decisions when it comes to the merchandise we sell. Still, at times, items make their way into our assortment improperly — this is one of those instances.”

CNN said it also asked Amazon and eBay if they would remove Confederate flag merchandise but did not get a response.

Sears said it does not sell confederate flags at its stores but will remove Confederate flag merchandise. Monday night, merchandise with the flag was still available on Sears.com.

Issues involving the Confederate flag flared up after nine people were shot in a Bible study group, allegedly by a 21-year-old who said he was killing the victims for white supremacist reasons. The South Carolina Capitol building lowered its flags — but not the Confederate flag because of the way the state’s flag law was written.

WSB