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California woman sues Walmart for 'segregated' black products

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California woman sues Walmart for 'segregated' black products
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LOS ANGELES:

A Californian woman sued supermarket chain Walmart on Friday, accusing the company of implementing extra security measures on products marketed toward black people.


Essie Grundy, 43, says all beauty products marketed for black people are placed in a locked glass case, while cosmetics targeting other ethnicities are freely available at the Walmart near her Perris home, about an hour southeast of Los Angeles.

When she asked a shop employee why the products were under lock and key, Grundy was told it “was a directive from corporate headquarters,” longtime women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred told reporters.




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The employee also told Grundy “she would need to be escorted to the cash register with the product so she could purchase it,” Allred added.

When Grundy raised the issue with a store manager, she says she did not receive a clear response, and no action was taken.

Grundy says she also visited two other Walmarts close to her home, and in one cosmetics marketed for African Americans were freely available, but monitored with security surveillance, unlike other products.

“As a result of this discriminatory business practice and policy, we filed a lawsuit this morning against Walmart,” Allred said, without specifying the damages being sought.

“It perpetuates a racial stereotytpe that African Americans are thieves.”

The lawsuit demands an immediate stop to the practice — noting the humiliation and psychological trauma Grundy was made to feel.

Grundy, a 43-year-old mother who owns an online clothing business, returned to the shop after the initial incident and filmed the beauty department.

The video was played during the press conference — showing men’s and women’s shampoos, body creams and combs of little retail value among other products with labels featuring black models, all arranged in a locked glass case.

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“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind at Walmart. We serve more than 140 million customers weekly, crossing all demographics,” the retail giant said in a statement.

“Some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to additional security,” which Walmart said individual stores determined “using data.”

The issue of Walmart securing beauty products marketed toward black people has already been a topic of controversy in the US — most notably in Virginia, where the practice was denounced by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
 
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A spokesperson for Walmart responded in a statement that says in part, "We're sensitive to this situation and also understand, like other retailers, that some products such as electronics, automotive, cosmetics and other personal care products are subject to additional security. Those determinations are made on a store-by-store basis using data supporting the need for the heightened measures."
 
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I feel for the women as this would make her feel like a criminal through no fault of her own.
Wal-Mart has taken the step as black people are stealing much more than other ethnicities.
Does anyone who understands US law knows if this goes against US law,
or can be argued to go against US law?
 
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I feel for the women as this would make her feel like a criminal through no fault of her own.
Wal-Mart has taken the step as black people are stealing much more than other ethnicities.
Does anyone who understands US law knows if this goes against US law,
or can be argued to go against US law?

There is no law being broken here by Walmart, they are in business to make money not lose it to five fingers discount this is just another frivolous lawsuit by ambulance chasing lawyer, money grab and nothing more.
 
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There is no law being broken here by Walmart, they are in business to make money not lose it to five fingers discount this is just another frivolous lawsuit by ambulance chasing lawyer, money grab and nothing more.

I disagree.
How would you feel if you were an honest black women in this situation?
 
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I disagree.
How would you feel if you were an honest black women in this situation?

I think she would have to prove these items are not stolen more frequently than the others. However i’m sure Walmart can prove they are otherwise they would not have had to put them behind glass in this particular store in the first place. BTW this isn’t nationwide.
 
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Does anyone who understands US law knows if this goes against US law,
or can be argued to go against US law?

Difficult to say because discrimination laws (and other basic laws) can get quite complicated and argued for and against, unless they are blatantly obvious which is not the case here.

What happens is they have to prove that the action is indeed discriminatory and infringes on certain people's rights, which in this case will be pretty hard to do since the products are still available for them to buy.

So what the lawyer (Gloria Allred in this case who is very well known) needs to do is prove that the action leads to something negative which is what she is doing by stating that it humiliates and causes psychological damage. Then the store can say that they have proof that they have to do this because those specific products are getting clipped on a regular basis. Then the judge will have to decide.
 
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America should give human rights to their own black people instead of poking nose in other countries' human rights.
 
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I think she would have to prove these items are not stolen more frequently than the others. However i’m sure Walmart can prove they are otherwise they would not have had to put hem behind glass in this particular store. This isn’t nationwide.

Damn, that must suck if you were an honest black woman. Anyone would feel humiliated in this situation.
Walmart should have done this for all ethnic groups and then there would not have been a problem.
 
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Damn, that must suck if you were an honest black woman. Anyone would feel humiliated in this situation.
Walmart should have done this for all ethnic groups and then there would not have been a problem.

Well I’m not a wonen’s hair care expert but it does seem like they have a large selection glassed off. If this is all African American specific they actually may have a larger selection than a typical store. So by increasing their choices they have consequently increase the number of products targeted for theft. So it’s going to get interesting.
 
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Damn, that must suck if you were an honest black woman. Anyone would feel humiliated in this situation.
Walmart should have done this for all ethnic groups and then there would not have been a problem.

That's a very good point and the judge might very well say something along those lines and make Walmart change its policy regarding that matter. He/she, after being presented with all the facts and knowing all the intricacies of the laws can come out and say "too bad, as a business, you are obligated to secure all your products and not just ones that are used by certain groups of people. Either use a standard security measure for everything or for none. It's quite possible."

Or he/she can say the store has the right to protect whatever it sees fit under the laws.

At the same time, this is the classic situation where a few bad apples ruin it for the whole bunch.
 
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That's a very good point and the judge might very well say something along those lines and make Walmart change its policy regarding that matter. He/she, after being presented with all the facts and knowing all the intricacies of the laws can come out and say "too bad, as a business, you are obligated to secure all your products and not just ones that are used by certain groups of people. Either use a standard security measure for everything or for none. It's quite possible."

Or he/she can say the store has the right to protect whatever it sees fit under the laws.

At the same time, this is the classic situation where a few bad apples ruin it for the whole bunch.

This kind of thing would never happen in UK.
Despite the fact that US has just had a black
President, it still has a long way to go before it
truly treats Blacks with dignity.
 
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Well I’m not a wonen’s hair care expert but it does seem like they have a large selection glassed off.

Funny coincidence: I was in the CVC in Fresh Pond a couple of weeks ago looking to buy a new trimmer and they were all locked up in a glass case. Looking at all the different options and reading the labels through the glass to decide which one I wanted to get, the store manager comes up to me and asks if I needed any help. I told her I'm still deciding and she stood there waiting until I made my mind up. She unlocked the case, grabbed the one I chose and she walked it to the cash register and gave it to the cashier and told her it was for me. I didn't think for a minute if the women's kits were locked up or not nor did I think there was a racial element involved, just store policy and neither were the kits that expensive. Highest one was like $50 or something like that, but is this sexual discrimination? :-)

This kind of thing would never happen in UK.
Despite the fact that US has just had a black
President, it still has a long way to go before it
truly treats Blacks with dignity.

Black people in the US certainly have their grievances, there's no doubt about that but at the same time, if you owned that particular Walmart and you knew that many of the items being clipped from the store were those specific products, what would you do?
 
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Black people in the US certainly have their grievances, there's no doubt about that but at the same time, if you owned that particular Walmart and you knew that many of the items being clipped from the store were those specific products, what would you do?

Wal-Mart is a multi-billion dollar group and it should not allow it's store managers this kind of power.
Like I say, I would have done the same for all ethnic groups.
US really needs to get a grip on it's inherent racism otherwise it is heading for a bad future as the whites become a minority by 2050.
 
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