Walgreens and CVS join Walmart in stopping the practice of locking up Black beauty products

• Walgreens and CVS Health will no longer lock up beauty products for Black women and other people of color.
• "We are taking steps in our stores to ensure that no hair, beauty or personal care products for communities of color are kept in locked displays or shelving units," CVS Health said in a statement to Business Insider.
• "We are currently ensuring multicultural hair care and beauty products are not stored behind locked cases at any of our stores," Walgreens told the Associated Press.
• Walmart also stopped the practice of locking up beauty products for people of color this week following a customer complaint.

CVS and Walgreens have joined Walmart in ending the practice of locking up beauty products for Black women and other people of color, the companies said this week.

"We have a firm nondiscrimination policy that applies to all aspects of our business and our product protection measures have never been based on the race or ethnicity of our customers," a CVS Health spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "After reviewing the security measures we have in place for many different products and categories, we are taking steps in our stores to ensure that no hair, beauty or personal care products for communities of color are kept in locked displays or shelving units."

In a statement to the Associated Press, which first reported the changes at both companies, Walgreens said, "We are currently ensuring multicultural hair care and beauty products are not stored behind locked cases at any of our stores."

The changes follow Walmart's announcement earlier this week that it would stop storing beauty products for Black people in locked display cases.

Walmart made the change, which it said impacted about a dozen of its stores, after a customer complained about the practice in an interview with TV station CBS Denver.

"I'm not going to be shamed into thinking I'm a criminal for just wanting to get a scarf," the customer, Lauren Epps, told CBS Denver. "This is very blatant because the heading above that aisle says 'Multicultural Hair Care.' They are saying that people, who are a different culture, need their stuff to be locked up."

CVS also said in its statement that the company has grown the product selection in its textured hair and color cosmetics categories by 35% this year.

"We are also committed to working with a growing number of women and minority owned suppliers to continue broadening our selection of products for our multicultural customers," the company said. "In fact, many of the brands in our textured hair assortment are Black-founded/Black-owned."