Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Black Barbie Doll cheaper than White Barbie Doll.
Controversy arises over the clearance mark on a black Barbie Doll which was sold for half the price of its white counterpart, standing side-by-side on a Walmart shelf.
The justification for this seems completely legitimate to me, and is a basic part of inventory management in retailing-- marking down a lower sales item from its original price in order to increase sales.
People caught up on the topic of race will try to point out anything as being racist, but the fact of the matter is that race had nothing to do with the marking down of the price of the black Barbie doll. It so happens that it just had lower sales, so it had to go on clearance like any other item in a similar situation.
Perhaps Walmart should have been more conscious of the controversy that this would cause and should have opted for a different way to increase sales for the item. Maybe they should have just marked down both the black and white Ballerina Barbie, instead of just the one.
Although I do not think that Walmart was being discriminatory nor racist in the marking down of the black Barbie, they were clearly being irresponsible by not looking ahead to the controversy that this action would cause.
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