This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2007.
Where can a brother get some haircare?
I’ve noticed lately that they have a vast array of hair care products kept behind the counter at the drug store. My concern is that they are all products marketed to Black people. All with pictures of beautiful Black smiles. None with a picture of Whitey
Leave a comment
I have noticed something like this too … specifically at the lawtons on Duffus. I went looking for makeup there one day and found out they don’t sell it anymore. Why? they might say because they don’t have the room … but I was thinking it’s so the teens in the neighbourhood don’t steal it.
Did they order a bunch of products aimed at black people and then say “Gee, this has a picture of a black person on it. We should put it behind the counter so it doesn’t get stolen.” Or did they notice that a lot of it was going missing and then put it behind the counter.I’d say it’s an important distinction.
I managed a corner store in the North End recently and it was a daily thing to find a product that had to be relocated behind the cash as certain groups would start stealing specific items. The drunks would steal Listerine, the hookers liked expensive chocolates and body-care products, the 4 teen thugs from Mulgrave Park liked to steal bags of chips or boxes of fudgesicles and hide them in their baggy pants then I could also point out the two regulars from Uniake Square who liked to steal packages of hotdogs and cans of no-name corned beef.I had to relocated pretty much every pocket-sized item from the sundry aisle to space behind my cash register and keep a close watch on a very defined group of people who proved that they won’t follow the rest of society and pay for their goods.