The Network Journal Publishes Retail Industry Diversity Report

Findings show little evidence of commitment among "top 10" local retailers to minority vendor relationships and senior management

NEW YORK (PRWEB) May 6, 2004 -- This month's issue of The Network Journal, New Yorks premier Black Professional and Small Business magazine, publishes an unprecedented report on diversity policies at the ten top retail companies headquartered in the New York-New Jersey area. The report, which outlines the companies' practices with respect to ethnic diversity in senior management and doing business with minority suppliers, shows that the overwhelming majority of the companies have no formal policy or program to promote diversity in those key areas. In most instances, the companies declined to disclose the name and rank of their highest-ranking African-American employee and how much money they spend annually with minority vendors, the report shows.

"We chose retail because of the NAACP's scathing report on the industry in 2003. We wanted to see where our local retail giants stand on the practice, not the talk, of diversity, given the amount of dollars Black people spend on their merchandise. But a year after the NAACP report, not to mention 50 years after Brown v the Board of Education's historic anti-discrimination ruling, we find that diversity is not as popular as we hoped it would be," Rosalind McLymont, The Network Journal's editor in chief, said.

The ten companies in the report are: Toys "R" Us, Inc.; Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the A&P supermarket chain; Barnes & Noble Inc., Foot Locker, Inc., Bed, Bath & Beyond, Inc., Tiffany & Co.; Ann Taylor Stores Corp.; Duane Reade, Inc.; Finlay Enterprises, Inc., operator of jewelry departments in major department stores; and Village Super Market, Inc., owner of Shoprite stores.

All publicly traded companies, they were chosen and ranked according to their 2002 revenues.

Information for the report was gathered over a month-long period from telephone calls to and e-mail exchanges with company representatives; studies of the companies' financial and stockholders' reports, codes of conduct and other official statements on their Web sites; and independent analyst reports.

"This report is in keeping with our tradition of featuring "Diversity" each May. This year, we set out simply to give the various strategies and programs at these enterprises, essentially without comment, to let them speak for themselves," McLymont said. "Frankly, we were surprised, not only at what we found, but also at the reluctance on the part of most of the companies to even speak to us."