Photo Courtesy of Walmart.com
Mega retailer Walmart faced the wrath of Kentucky mom Asheria Brown when she discovered that the store was selling identical dolls for different prices based on the doll’s color.
Black dolls were selling for considerably more than white dolls.
Wanting to purchase a doll that mirrored her oldest child’s appearance, Brown went shopping on Walmart’s website. She decided on a Kid Connection doll set until she noticed that the white doll set could be purchased 40 percent cheaper than the black doll set. The doll sets had the same accessories and parts, totaling 48 pieces, but the
Black dolls and accessories were priced at $39.97, while the white doll set was priced at $25.00.Brown shared, “They were 14 dollars and 97 cents more expensive than the white babies I saw in the store.”
When Brown called out Walmart on Twitter, other Twitter users reported other examples of price differences more extreme than the set that Brown protested.
“@Walmart, please tell me why the black doll cost more ??????,” asked one Twitter user of a doll set that appeared to cost nearly $40 more than the white version.
In a statement on Twitter, Walmart apologized, saying that, “The price difference in the two items was the result of price changes made systemically. We lowered the price on a select group of toys, including only one of these dolls, to help drive sales. Unfortunately, we overlooked the impact these changes would have on similar items whose price did not change. This was an unintentional error on our part, and we sincerely apologize to anyone it may have offended.”
As reported by Yahoo, Duke University professor Dr. Sabrina Thomas that while racism does play a part in the price increase, the economic issue of supply and demand is the real problem. A doll
historian and docent for the North Carolina Museum of History, Dr. Thomas, shared, “The problem, I believe when we look at these discrepancies in pricing is that toy manufacturers do not produce Black dolls in proportion to the number of people in the human population.”