Walmart Denies Equal Access to African-American Products, Lawsuit Says

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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.