Sephora closing all U.S. stores on June 5 for diversity training

(Image credit: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

published 3 June 2019

Your lipstick and mascara purchases will have to wait on Wednesday, as Sephora is closing every store, distribution center, and corporate office in the United States so employees can undergo diversity training.

In April, singer SZA tweeted that she was racially profiled while shopping at a Sephora in Calabasas, California. Sephora spokeswoman Emily Shapiro told Reuters the company takes claims like this "very seriously," adding that "profiling on the basis of race is not tolerated at Sephora." 

Shapiro also said the temporary store closures are not "a response to any one event," and the company had been planning "inclusivity workshops" for some time. Last year, Starbucks closed all of its stores in the United States for an afternoon of "racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination." The move came shortly after a manager in a Philadelphia Starbucks called the police on two black customers waiting for a business meeting, accusing them of trespassing.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.