CHICAGO
Toy store aisles are getting a multicultural makeover.
Bolstered by the success of Nickelodeon’s popular bilingual children’s character, Dora the Explorer, and the spending power of the nation’s growing minority population, toy retailers across the country are filling their shelves with dolls whose skin colors and facial features reflect the girls and boys who play with them.
Although black and Hispanic dolls have been around for decades, the newer incarnations try harder at authenticity, rather than simply tinting the hair and skin from “white” doll molds.
Now, discount retailer Kmart hopes to cash in on a growing appetite for ethnic toys among minority consumers, and their rising spending power. It’s launching its own initiative this month, putting dozens of multicultural dolls on shelves in each of its 1,400 stores.
Although other retailers are stocking more multicultural dolls often in predominantly minority neighborhoods Kmart claims it’s the first mass-market retailer to have such a wide selection available in every store.
When the rollout is completed next week, Kmart stores will sell nearly four dozen types of ethnic dolls a nearly fourfold increase from what’s currently available. The dolls are flanked by an advertising campaign in the store’s circulars and designed to appeal to black, Hispanic and Asian parents.
