18 Oct Preppy Gear, Inc. (PG) is a retail clothing chain. PG markets itself to older teens and young adults with a look that is “sometimes preppy, always fly.

Preppy Gear, Inc. (PG) is a retail clothing chain. PG markets itself to older teens and young adults with a look that is “sometimes preppy, always fly.” PG clothing is heavily branded with the PG logo and often attracts consumers that are very image conscious when it comes to their sense of dress and style. PG caters to this both in having a relatively high price point for its clothing and in running marketing and sales campaigns that play up the company’s distinctive image. To further support their corporate image, the company seeks to hire sales associates that are in their teens and 20s to work in public-facing sales associate positions at their stores. The company says that this is a business necessity in that people want to buy clothing from people who look good wearing that same clothing. Managers are told to look for employees who are attractive, well put together, and give off that good old American boy or girl next door look. PG clothing is for the popular kids, not for geeks, nerds, or weirdos.

The company advertises and hires for its retail sales associate positions widely and hires people from all racial and ethnic groups, as well as hires both men and women. However, almost all PG sales associates have the “PG look.” Last year, of those who applied for available positions, 45% of white applicants were hired, 42% of African American applicants were hired, 46% of Hispanic applicants were hired, 100% of Native American applicants were hired (only four applied), and 59% of Asian applicants were hired. Eighty percent of PG sales employees are women, but women are four times as likely to apply so both sexes are hired at about the same rate. Although PG does not have any policy regarding color or track such numbers officially, it’s apparent that virtually all of the African American sales associates are light skinned.

A position at the local PG store at the mall became open and the store advertised and received several applicants that very first day. Of the applicants, Kiki, a 21-year-old dark-skinned African American woman, was turned down for a sales associate position at PG despite having several years of experience as a sales associate at similar stores and strong references. Lita, a heavyset Latino woman was turned down as well for not having the “look” that PG is going for. Alison, a white woman who interviewed with a Goth style hair, makeup, and jewelry was also turned down for not having the “look.” All of these applicants had clean criminal records on their background checks.

Instead, PG hired Anna, a 19-year-old recent high school graduate and former cheerleader, who was eating food in the mall food court one day when she was approached by the store manager and was asked to interview. Anna buys PG clothing and likes “the look,” so she applied for the position that day and was hired despite not having any prior work experience. This same system is used to hire sales associates from all races and ethnic groups, men and women.

Is there a problem with this hiring practice? Why or why not?