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A California woman is challenging Walmart’s practice of locking away products marketed for African-American consumers.
Plaintiff Essie Grundy says her local Walmart Supercenter is unlawfully discriminating against its African-American customers by locking away African-American personal products out of their reach and preventing customers from purchasing such products without being escorted by a store employee. She argues that by doing so, Walmart is in violation of California civil rights law.
In January 2018, Grundy says, she went to the Walmart Supercenter near her home in Riverside County, Calif. to buy a skin cream. She didn’t find what she was looking for by walking the aisles.
She later found out that this Walmart store keeps personal care products that are made by and marketed for African-American consumers locked away in a glass case, separate from all other personal care products.
Because the products were locked up, Grundy says, she was unable to handle them, read the ingredient labels, or make a purchase without getting store staff to unlock the case. Other personal care products were out on the store’s regular shelves, where any customer could handle them and bring them to the checkout themselves, Grundy says.
Grundy was shocked. She says she asked a store employee why African-American products were locked up in a way that other products weren’t. The employee allegedly told Grundy that the store had received a directive from Walmart corporate headquarters to keep African-American products locked up that way.
The employee also told Grundy that to purchase any item in the case, she would need to be escorted to the front of the store by a Walmart employee, she says.
According to the Walmart lawsuit, Grundy then complained to a manager, saying she felt like Walmart was discriminating against African-Americans like herself and did not want them as customers. The manager did not address her concerns, she says.
Grundy claims she returned to the same Walmart store at least three more times, since it’s in her neighborhood and is her local source for the products she needs. On one occasion, she purchased a comb made for African-American hair. Despite being priced at only $0.48, the comb was locked up with all other African-American personal care products, she says.
The Walmart lawsuit claims a Walmart employee escorted Grundy to the checkout with the comb and would not give her the comb until she had paid for it.
Each time Grundy went to this Walmart store, she says, she observed African-American products locked up the same way. She says other customers stared at her while she waited for the products to be unlocked. She felt she was being treated like a criminal, and the experience left her overwhelmed with shame and humiliation, she says.
Grundy’s Walmart lawsuit raises claims for violation of California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and Business and Professions Code.
She is asking for a court injunction barring Walmart from denying full access to African-American products and requiring the retailer to shelve such products out in the open, the same way it shelves other products. She also seeks an award of actual, statutory and treble damages, court costs and attorney fees, and any other relief the court sees fit to grant.
Grundy is represented by attorneys Gloria Allred and Nathan Goldberg of Allred Maroko Goldberg.
The Walmart African-American Products Discrimination Lawsuit is Grundy v. Walmart, Case No. RIC 1801903, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Riverside.
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209 thoughts onWalmart Denies Equal Access to African-American Products, Lawsuit Says
Please add me
Not all AA products are locked up. Like the frozen fried chicken or watermelon. Just high risk items!
First of all that’s the most racist comment I’ve ever heard…. not all African Americans eat fried chicken and Watermelon. This is absolutely absurd!
Walmart is going to have to put Newport cigarettes out in the open!
Just like your homosexuality
Add me. This has been going on for quite awhile
As a parent, I am offended that baby formula is locked up. Oh, wait, it’s because it is STOLEN so much. Shut up. This lawsuit is offensive to me. The atty on this case is Gloria Allred. Enough said.
Give me a break. First, did this – looking for a free gravy train – woman seek out the ambulance chaser Allred or is Gloria scraping the bottom of the barrel?
First, some of those products (SheaMoisture) are not just for blacks. And second, as many have already alluded to, if Walmart is seeing a large portion of shoplifting with these products, they have every right to be pro-active in ensuring this doesn’t continue.
Does this gold digger ask that the razor blades be out in the open? Or cigarettes and lighter fluid that are sometimes locked or kept behind the cashier? What about guns?
Frivolous suit using the race card. This woman is scum, along with her joke of a lawyer.
Why are you on here? Just skip your happy ass on to the next class action suit!! She’s no more of a gold digger than you are!
BITCH BYE!
SheaMoisture was not the only product locked up.
If you research the facts (the original story, as well as other in video from social media) others also claim ONLY *ethnic products* that were locked.
Gravy Train aka the U.S. court system, lol.
Everyone has rights in this society, until a person of a certain color/race demands justice.
Escorted to the register to purchase a
$0.48 comb, but yet she is scum?!
In that case, every item in the stores should be locked up to prevent shoplifting.
Any product with equivalent assests should come with an escort with purchase!!
Lock up all over the counter medicines, cough syrup, Honey, bagels, nutella, slow cookers, & diapers.
Ms Grundy ” felt she was being treated like a criminal, and the experience left her overwhelmed with shame and humiliation” yet she returned three more times ? How about not spending your money @ this kind of place ! Then sue if you’re so inclined but STOP GIVING THEM YOUR MONEY! Hit them where it matters ! In the pocket ! You can purchase a 48 cent comb anywhere ! I’m sure Ms Grundy purchased other items while shopping for African American products thereby buying into Walmart’s greed.
I am glad for this lawsuit. My neighborhood Walmart is not like this, but they do close aisles at certain times and this really annoys me. Being a working mom, I don’t get to always shop early. So… if you live in my part of Riverside County and you want basic necessities like body lotion… you better get to WalMart before 10pm or there will be orange gates and chains up. Really WalMart. Now you have me shopping at Target and paying more, just not to feel how you made me feel.
And that’s Walmart’s fault? Protecting the merchandise from thieves?
They closed a Walmart Store In Fairfield Alabama because the blacks were stealing them blind, including the employees. They just moved to the store 5 miles down the road where I live. Now there is hardly anything on the shelves, especially around the 1st and the 3rd of the month.
Its funny all I could think about while shopping was our savior Jesus Christ on the cross and what he said. “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do”,, and I am somehow sure he was thinking about the Walmart Board of Directors and what they would do 2000 years later!!
As a man born in the South and my ancestors are all from here, I would like to ask some forgiveness myself from the rest of America. If my ancestors had not of been so damn lazy and picked their own cotton, we would NOT have the problem we have today
You don’t know history , their were a lot of slave owners.
Thank you for acknowledging sometimes the sins of the Father…also some folks just make it bad for the rest of us. Bad People.
:-( the blacks stole … really
If only those Neanderthals had stayed in their caves without raping, robbing, stealing from the rest of civilization………
At the Wal-Mart Super Center I shop at, there’s only a small section at the end of an isle for African Americans. In the world we live in, we are still seen as people with no rights.
Debra, ever think the store locks up the most stolen items? When I go to Walmart the men’s razors are locked up. Never did I think to sue Walmart for sexism, instead I was realistic and realized these items are stolen the most.
According to FBI stats 70% of shoplifters arrested are white, so retail stores like Walmart need to lock up items that are brought by majority white customers.
If walmart locked up Starbucks or made them sign an affidavit every Nutella, purchase they would lose Their s***
Such a racist comment. But, I get what you’re saying. Poor people with low morals tend to steal, regardless of race. When I lived in the mountains of Tennessee, the black population was less than 2%. Well, the local Walmart was a mess! Opened packages, spills on the floors, and the shelves were empty around the first of the month. And, there was barely a person of color in sight. I’ve lived from NY to CA, and have resided in the south for several years. Low class, and a even lower moral compass, comes in all shapes, sizes, and color. By the way, I’m Black.
Amen.
Exactly. Truth… In security I’m taught to watch those with darker skin. I have many stories to tell.