Walmart was criticised for selling black Barbies at nearly half the price of white dolls
Posted on 03/12/2010 4:11:48 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Walmart under fire for selling black Barbies at half price of white dolls
An American supermarket chain has come under fire for cutting the price of black Barbies to nearly half that of the white dolls.
By Heidi Blake
Published: 9:07AM GMT 11 Mar 2010
Walmart was criticised for selling black Barbies at nearly half the price of white dolls
Walmart stocks Mattel’s fair-skinned Ballerina Barbie dolls and its darker-skinned Ballerina Theresa dolls at many of its stores, but the chain has now been criticised for “valuing blackness less than whiteness” by cutting the price of the black doll.
A photograph posted to the website FunnyJunk.com by a user called Amber Frederick shows the black-skinned dolls priced $3 alongside a row of white-skinned dolls on sale for $5.93.
The picture, captioned “I Love my Wal-Mart”, is believed to have been taken in a Louisiana branch of the store.
A spokeswoman for the chain said the price change was part of efforts to clear shelf space for new spring stock.
“To prepare for spring inventory, a number of items are marked for clearance,” she said. “Both are great dolls. The red price sticker indicates that this particular doll was on clearance when the photo was taken.”
But critics have said Walmart should have considered the implications of its pricing decision more carefully.
“The implication of lowering the price is that it’s devaluing the black doll,” said Theresa Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If the items were moving they wouldn’t be slashing the price. This has absolutely nothing to do with racism, but is being made into yet another issue.
It isn’t Wal-Mart that’s “de-valuing” the black dolls—it’s the consumer who doesn’t buy them at the same rate as the white dolls.
Ahhh, my first guess would be that they are not selling as fast as the other ones so Wal-mart cut the price to move the product.
The "Northside Center for Child Development" is more like the "NorthBroadside Center for attack on free trade and commerce"
Sell them at any price..give them away free...I don’t want one.
LOL!
They’d bit*h if their ice cream was cold.
Where is the Asian Barbie? Native American Barbie? Indian Barbie? Transsexual Barbie?
Just saying...
/mark
Either way they can cry "R A C I S M!!!"...
If they determine their own self worth by the value of a Barbie doll then they will never, ever, get out of their situation.
What do they charge for the Transsexual Barbies?
LLS
Maybe they should check the produce section to see if this store is selling watermelons at a deep discount...give me a break.
LOL, first time I’ve heard that. Thanks!
Why do I have to pay twice as much to by my white daughter a white Barbie?
Does anybody really think anybody at WalMart actully knew the color of the doll’s skin when they lowered the price of this particular item? A certain SKU was not moving, so they cut the price to clear them out. The process is, for all intents and purposes, automatic.
One doll is not selling as well as the other. This is not really surprising. There are always imbalances like this in the retail market. In the larger scheme of things, the manufacturer will surely correct this problem by producing fewer of the lower-selling model.
Either color,they still look like trailer trash!
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