Barneys

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Barneys New York Logo.png
The now-closed Barneys flagship store on 60th Street in Manhattan (2010)

Barneys New York Inc. was an American luxury department store brand, founded in 1923 in New York City.[1] It introduced major luxury brands including Armani, Azzedine Alaïa, Comme des Garçons, Christian Louboutin, Gregory Herman and Ermenegildo Zegna to the US market.

Barneys New York filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2019 and closed 15 of its 22 stores, including flagship stores in Las Vegas, Chicago, and Seattle. Following its sale in November 2019, Authentic Brands Group took control of the Barneys brand name and licensed it to Saks Fifth Avenue.[2][3]

Taylor Christian college student who falsely accused in Madison Ave. because of his skin color
Kayla Phillips filed a lawsuit after she was detained after buying a $2,500 Céline bag from Barneys. Photograph: Aaron Showalter/Getty Images

Controversies

Racial Profiling
Barneys insiders told HuffPost they’ve seen profiling by salespeople and security guards. One current veteran employee at the Madison Avenue store — who asked for anonymity because workers were given “strict warning” they could lose their jobs for speaking to the media — alleged that store security keeps a close eye on black shoppers who don’t look famous. But even famous black shoppers aren’t completely safe. The former employee recalled one of the Barneys loss-prevention specialists, who are tasked with reducing store theft, reminiscing about the time he was working at Saks Fifth Avenue and stopped the rapper Lil’ Kim.[4]

Barneys was repeatedly accused of racially profiling its customers throughout the years. In 1996, Johnnie Roberts, a journalist for Newsweek, published an account of an incident taking place in the spring of 1990 in which he was mistakenly accused of shoplifting because he is African American. The store manager refused to apologize. Roberts reached out to company executives who also refused to apologize. Even crazier, The Pressmans, the founding family of Barneys, told Roberts that he was the one who caused the clerk to make the mistake. Roberts began a boycott.[5]

October 2013, Trayon Christian, a 19-year-old college student, sued Barneys in Manhattan Supreme Court last month, after he was falsely accused of shoplifting a $359 Ferragamo belt he bought at the Madison Avenue store. But following the purchase, he was stopped by undercover officers that were allegedly called on by a Barneys sales clerk who believed the transaction was fraudulent. Despite showing the officers the receipt for the belt, his ID and the debit card used, “Christian was told that his identification was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase,” Michael Palillo, Christian’s attorney said. The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, states that the NYC College of Technology freshman was asked by the cops: “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt?” He was then handcuffed and taken to a local precinct.[6] Cops eventually called Chase, which verified that the card belonged to Christian, and they let him go. Police sources said Christian has no arrest record. Christian told The Post he returned the belt out of disgust over his treatment by the world-famous clothing store.[7]

Less than 24 hours after the news that Barneys and the New York Police Department are being slapped with a discrimination suit by 19-year-old college student Trayon Christian, the luxury store and the police department are being accused of racial profiling yet again. Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing student from Brooklyn, told the Daily News that she was stopped by police after purchasing a $2,500 Céline bag at the store on February 28. After buying the luxury item with the money from a tax return, the woman left the Madison Avenue store. Three blocks away, she says she was surrounded by four undercover police officers at a nearby subway station. Phillips says the white officers, a male and female, questioned her for 20 minutes, inquiring where she lives, why she was in Manhattan and how she was able to purchase such an expensive bag. She told them she was in the borough to shop, showed them her receipt and the card she used. After showing them her ID and card she was carrying in her purse, the officers let her go.[8]

After the lawsuit, in August 2014 Barneys agreed to pay $525,000 in fees and penalties and required to hire an anti-profiling consultant and to put employees through training on the issue.[9][10]

Racist Culture
Former associate of Barneys, who is black and worked at the store in 2012 and 2013 said she often hear racist comments from her colleague in store. “If a black person comes in with a sweatshirt or sneakers, some of the white sales associates would be on the floor saying: ‘Why are they even here? They’re probably going to scam,’”. “They would say this stuff in front of me. Sometimes I would just walk away, and sometimes I would say, ‘You never know.’”[4]

References

  1. Setoodeh, Ramin. Barneys, Fabulous Department Store for Movie Stars, Dies at 97. Variety. 21 February 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  2. Friedman , Vanessa ; Maheshwari, Sapna. Barneys Is Sold for Scrap, Ending an Era. The New York Times. 1 November 2019 updated 8 September 2020. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  3. Wahba, Phil. Bankrupt Barneys New York Will Continue as an In-Store Shop at Saks. Fortune. 2 November 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Bhasin, Kim ; Wilson, Julee. Barneys Racist Culture Deeply Ingrained In Store, Insiders Say. Huff Post. 7 November 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  5. Bhasin, Kim. Barneys’ Racial Profiling Problem Stretches Back At Least 20 Years. Huff Post. 25 October 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  6. Wilson, Julee. Black College Student Arrested For Buying A Designer Belt, Barneys & NYPD Slapped With Lawsuit (UPDATE). Huff Post. 23 October 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  7. Marsh Julia.Barneys busted student for ‘shopping while black’. NY Post. 22 October 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  8. Wilson, Julee. Another Black Shopper Accuses Barneys And NYPD Of Racism (UPDATE). Huff Post. 24 October 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  9. Rushe, Dominic. Barneys to pay $525,000 in racial profiling settlement. The Guardian. 11 August 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2021.
  10. Hyland, Véronique. Barneys Just Settled With the Customer From Its Racial-Profiling Suit. The Cut. 20 January 2016. Retrieved January 30, 2021.