Tesco black dolls £1 less than white

Shoppers’ horror at ‘ethnic’

price difference

Shock in store ... the dolls and price

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SUPERMARKET giant Tesco was yesterday slammed for selling a black doll £1 CHEAPER than a white one.

Shocked mum Holly Beckett, 22, went to her local branch to buy a toy for a pal’s hospitalised daughter.

When she saw two Emmi Baby Dolls for sale side by side she was amazed to see the white version was more EXPENSIVE than the black.

Holly — and other customers she spoke to — reckoned the reason for the price variation was because the dolls have a “different ethnicity”.

The white My Lovely Baby was priced at £5.96 — but the black My Beautiful Baby was only £4.97.

Despite having different names the dolls are the same apart from different coloured skin and outfits — one pink, one purple — and they make different sounds.

Pictures on the side of their boxes display a black girl playing with the black doll and a white girl playing with the white one.

Shopped ... Tesco store in Dudley

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Angry Holly reported the price difference to staff but said she was told it was a simple “pricing error”.

But when she returned to the store a week later she was astonished to discover there was still a price difference.

Holly — a former Tesco employee who shops at the giant store in Dudley, West Mids — said: “I think it’s disgusting I have to pay one pound more because it’s a white baby.

Angry ... mum Holly Beckett

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“At first I reported the price difference because I was worried about what people would think about Tesco.

“As an ex-employee I didn’t want them to get involved in some kind of race row.”

Holly said when she complained to store staff they tried to offer her the white doll at the SAME price as the black one.

She added: “It’s not about the money, but the fact is the white doll is a quid more dear than the black one and that can sow all kinds of ideas in people’s heads.”

Last night a Tesco spokesman said it was because the black dolls went on sale after the white ones — but at the “introductory” price the white ones had originally been sold for.

The spokesman added: “At present the product is being sold at an introductory price. That is all there is to it.”

myView

By BARBARA CAMPBELL, Editor Black Heritage Today

TESCO may not have meant this in a racist way — but to black people it could be taken as that.

Surely it is common sense to have a white and black doll on a shop shelf at the same price. Otherwise, what kind of message are you sending out?

Young black people have felt undervalued for years and yet here again something black is undervalued.

Someone at Tesco should have realised that this was not the right thing to do.

Both dolls should be the same price — even a child can see that
.