Walgreens pulls ‘swastika’ gift wrap

A US pharmacy chain said it was pulling a gift-wrapping paper print from all its national stores, after a California woman complained that she found swastikas in the design.

Walgreens said on Monday that it would scrap the print, in a move possibly intended to head off negative press more than to concede that the design contained the Nazi symbol.

“We are in the process of removing the product from our stores,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told NBC’s Southern California affiliate NBC4.

The issue arose after shopper Cheryl Shapiro stumbled upon the allegedly offensive blue-and-silver pattern in the Hanukkah section at her local Walgreens in southern California.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes, I had no idea what to do,” she told NBC4.

Interview with Cheryl Shapiro, the southern California woman who was offended by a gift-wrapping print, which she claims resembles swastikas, December 8, 2014. (NBC4: screen capture)

“I told them I wanted this taken off the shelves immediately — not just your store, but national,” Shapiro said. “I was really putting my foot down because I was appalled by this.

“I came home and I spoke to my rabbi. He couldn’t believe it,” Shapiro said. “I’m still very upset about it, that something like this could be on the market.”

Shapiro is expected to fully recover from the ordeal.