“Sexist pricing” – Boots moves to eliminate inequality on its shelves
Boots has responded to a UK petition accusing it of sexist price differentiation between similar products aimed at men and women
Print4 February 2016
It’s a well-established truth that we are living in an age of renewed focus on equality, but it’s important to remember that that doesn’t only stretch to far-reaching social issues. A push towards equality between men and women is also occurring in other areas – like retail.
Recently, there has been accusations of “sexist pricing” levelled at retailers, whereby similar products aimed at men and women had differing price points. A petition on Change.org detailed some of these differences, specific to Boots in the UK.
An eye cream for women was priced £9.99, while eye cream for men was priced £7.29. Meanwhile, women’s razors were priced £2.29 for a pack of eight and a pack of 10 aimed at men were £1.49
“So-called ‘women’s products’ are more expensive,” the petition by Stevie Wise read, “from razors to moisturising creams. Women already buy things that men don’t have to buy, like make up, hair products and tampons which are taxed as luxuries. Now to top it all off, research has proven what any woman who has ever been inside a hair salon already knew: women pay more than men for the same stuff.”
The petition, which currently has around 43,000 signatures, got Boots’ attention, which has agreed to review its pricing policy to a more fair and equal footing.
In a statement on its site, the company said it has never conducted a pricing system that discriminated against women, and so was dismayed to find the examples cited as part of the petition.
“We immediately conducted a review on all Boots own brand and proprietary ranges to better understand the cited examples,” the statement said. “This review has reassured us that for Boots own brands the two reported examples, Boots disposable razors and Botanics eye roll on, are indeed exceptional cases which do not completely meet our principles and we are taking action to correct these prices.
“Following the review of Boots own brand ranges, we are speaking to our suppliers to ask them to conduct similar reviews of their brands, however we cannot comment further on their pricing – that would be a matter for the brands themselves.”
Whether or not this new move will see the price of men’s products increase, or women’s products decrease remains to be seen, but any step towards equality is always a good one – especially when it’s a no-brainer like this one.
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