Four former employees of Macy’s filed a federal lawsuit earlier this month— alleging that at the company’s flagship store in Herald Square, N.Y. — managers in the cosmetics and fragrance department “repeatedly directed … sales associates to racially profile customers of Asian descent.”
Attorney Douglas Wigdor, who filed the lawsuit, said, “This racial profiling of customers of Asian descent is based on the discriminatory stereotype that all Asian customers are resellers — that is, Asian customers buy goods in markets like the U.S. and resell them on the grey market at a markup in Asia.”
According to the complaint, one manager told employees, “Don’t sell to Chinese.” “Why are you selling to these people?” another sales person said she was told.
“We are confident that the allegations in this matter will ultimately be found to be without merit,” Macy’s spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
In 2014, Macy’s agreed to pay $650,000 to settle a racial profiling probe with the New York attorney general’s office following complaints that it unlawfully detained Black customers shopping in the Herald Square store.