You won't believe this...

At about noon today my boss asked me if I'd mind leaving an hour early to drop someone off at the airport. I assured him that as a valuable employee, with only my boss' needs in mind, I would sacrifice one hour of my workday to do this task for him.

Am I a model employee or what?

Since I had some extra time, I stopped by Toys R Us on the way home. Dangerous territory. I went in there for one $5 item. I left $72 later. At least I remembered the $5 item - I've done that before, left the store much lighter in the pocket without the one thing I went there to buy.

Anywho, I saw this Cabbage Patch doll that is just too cute. Her name is Ingrid Esther (not a name I'd have chosen, but I honestly didn't look until now). When I was picking out the doll I noticed two different price tags, one for CPK Newborn for $19.99 and another for AA CPK Newborn $16.99. I didn't notice any difference between the dolls on the shelf. All Cabbage Patch Kids are different, that's the schtick, right? Other than that, no noticeable difference.

So Esther and I headed to the checkout. As I was finishing up at the register I asked the saleslady how much the doll was. She looked - $19.99. Was there a problem? I told her no, not really, but there'd been two different prices on the shelf and I hadn't been sure how much the doll was going to be. No big deal. She encouraged me to talk to customer service and headed off with my receipt, so I followed.

After the cashier and I explained the situation, the very nice lady at customer service desk called for a price check. When she didn't get an immediate response she suggested we head over and take a look ourselves, it wasn't far. I took her to the shelf and showed her the dolls. Another clerk was there, responding to her price check call.

The lady from customer service was as puzzled as I, grabbed two of the dolls off the shelf and scanned their prices. Both were $19.99. She seemed about to suggest she give me the different price when the other clerk, bless his heart, pipped up and suggested that the "AA" stood for African American.

The clerk, who was African American, and I were flabbergasted. Surely not. But sure enough, when she scanned one of the "brown" babies it popped up at $16.99. I could have stood there all day and that never would have crossed my mind, I commented. And truly, it wouldn't have. At that point we all seemed to feel a little embarrassed, so I thanked them for checking for me and made my escape.

Crazy huh?

I am torn over calling Toys R Us and saying something. I've determined that it's pretty insulting either way you look at it. On one hand I could be upset about paying a premium for a "white" doll, on the other hand, did the customer service clerk feel slighted that the "brown" doll was cheaper? Should anyone care? The dolls were identical, even the packaging, the only difference was the tone of the dolls skin.

All I know for sure is that the whole story is actually pretty laughable, Esther is awfully cute and I hope Angie likes her come Christmas morning. :)