World

Louisiana Walmart Charges Less for Black Barbie than White Barbie

by Blaine Metzgar | March 9, 2010 at 12:57 pm

1630 views | 4 Recommendations | 6 comments

A Lousiana-based Walmart is coming under fire after a photograh was taken showing the store charging less for a black barbie than a white barbie doll.

The photograph shows Mattel's Ballerina Barbie and Ballerina Theresa dolls, white and black respectively, hanging on a shelf beside one another with the price of the Theresa doll set at $3.00 as compared to that of the Barbie at $5.93, nearly double the price.

The dolls are literally identical aside from the skin colour.

Walmart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien responded to an inquiry regarding the price discrepancy, explaining the valuation of the dolls was set "to prepare for Spring inventory, a number of items are marked for clearance. Both are great dolls. The red price sticker indicates that this particular doll was on clearance when the photo was taken, and though both dolls were priced the same to start, one was marked down due to its lower sales to hopefully increase purchase from customers."

To be fair, in the photo the price of the Theresa doll is indeed listed on a red, clearance, sticker while the Barbie's price is listed on a blue sticker. Walmart as a corporation is all about profitability and apparently the Theresa doll was not as profitable. O'Brien explicated this notion saying, "pricing like items differently is a part of inventory management in retailing."

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend This comment thread is now closed

Hugh Askew

at 15:36 on March 9th, 2010

Duh, it is on "clearance".

PhillipP (not verified)

at 04:25 on March 10th, 2010

I am very disappointed you would devote so much space to a non story. I used to manage a toy department in a major department store. Black dolls only sold to WHITE collectors. We always had to end up marking down the black dolls. Also, Theresa is not Barbie, she is a separate character in the Barbie world.

RayB (not verified)

at 07:04 on March 10th, 2010

Doesn't matter. You take the hit if it not selling instead of being insensitive.

Dolomite Barbie (not verified)

at 10:01 on March 10th, 2010

Dude, invest in a spellcheck... 'jus sayin'

Shaniqua Barbie (not verified)

at 10:14 on March 10th, 2010

"Always 'ho prices?" Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} To be fair, it is a good deal, she does come with 3 kids, and “Baby daddy Ken” left 12 years ago leaving her with the Compton dream house.