Racism In Toyland Summary

I chose chapter 34,”Racism in Toyland” by Christine Williams in which she talks about the culture of retail. She starts off by saying she had to buy a gift for a six year old and discussed the choices she had to buy the gift. The choices were: The Toy Warehouse, which is a big box store that had a vast array of low-cost popular toys; Diamond Toys, which is a high end chain store that has a more limited range of high quality toys; or Tomatoes, which was a locally owned shop that sells relativity small, offbeat assortment of traditional and politically correct toys. To her retail like anything else also has a racial inequality (and gender and class inequality as well) influence to where we shop, how we shop, and what we buy. Within the retail industry, they sustain such inequalities with their hiring policies that favor certain kind of workers and advertising

aimed at customers from specific racial or ethnic groups. Williams had actually worked in two of these stores and was able to see the connection between shopping and social inequality of the retail industry.

She notes at the warehouse store (which was the lower end toy store) that she was one of the few white women who were on the staff with the majority being African American, Hispanic or second-generation Asian Americans. Whereas as the higher end store most of the workers were white. The customers at the warehouse store were a mix of every racial and ethnic group and social class and at the higher end store were prominently white. She notes that whites have the better jobs in retail a lot of the times where the minorities are given the jobs that most people do not want. She also talked about the location and not only does the location of the store matter on what customer based you target it also determines the staffing as well. If the store is in a predominately black neighborhood the staff will be predominately black and vice versa. She also noted that race also determines what kind of service you get and customers' attitudes also are determined by who is

working.
Being that I manage a retail store, this story hit close to home for me. Though I have worked for the same company for the past 8 years, I have worked and travelled to many different stores and have seen this hands on. In my particular store, we are in a predominately white community and my staff is a clear representation of that whereas if you were to drive up the road twenty minutes to our next store you would see a completely different staff based on the area of the store. I have actually worked in this exact store and being a white female I was definitely “the other”. Customers would come in and take one look at me and automatically go to a coworker who “matched” what they were comfortable with. I learned about all the Jordan’s and any other of the fashion type of footwear that was popular to that area and finally “gained their trust” though they still “questioned” my expertise on the products. It seemed as though I knew the lingo of the shoes that were out and what products went with the newest release, because I was a young white female I must have no idea what I was talking about. I definitely related to Williams with how she felt working at the warehouse type store.
This also goes hand in hand in what product each store carries like Williams mentioned in her chapter. Being that my store is in a more “rural” setting I do not get the new Jordan’s and the “fashion orientated” clothing but more running and sports related gear. Whereas the other store I’ve mentioned is the complete opposite. The majority of their sales is shoes where main is clothing/equipment. Like Williams pointed out, location is a big part of who works where and what is carried in what store and working in retail I see that clearly day in and day out.