In today’s gross news, it’s been revealed that Tesco sells an ethnic baby doll for £29.99, while the same doll with a white skin tone goes for £50 through Tesco Direct. Both the toys are the same size, and both come with the same accessories – a nappy, a spoon, and a potty – and are created by Zapf.
The Sun has also pointed out that, in Toys R Us, a family of white wooden dolls cost £9.99, but the ethnic version is sold for £6.99. The company has apologised, blaming it on a pricing error, and has promised to amend the price. ‘This £6.99 was simply a keying error on a pricing – the ethnic family should be £9.99 as well. The price will be changed for tomorrow.’
Interestingly, the price discrepency at Tesco just so happened to be a pricing problem, too! Probably get a better system, guys! One that doesn’t only break down when pricing babies with different skin colours! In all seriousness though, this really does highlight how ingrained inequality still is in the UK, and how much further we have to go.
Tesco is now selling the dolls at the same price, and – along with Toys R Us – has hopefully learned a valuable lesson that won’t be repeated by any other brands: do not mark the price of a replica human being down because it isn’t white. You’d think that’d be a given, wouldn’t you?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.