The pink tax. A term being brought to light more and more every day. A term used to describe when companies market items to women that are nearly identical to those targeted toward men, except they are more expensive.
And sometimes largely more expensive at that.
Just this week one TikToker caught wind of this at the beloved amusement park, Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. After a day at the parks, Amanda (@happilyamanda_) went into one of the many stores to shop around, and what they found truly shocked her. Receiving over 209,100 views and 13,300 likes the TikTok has quickly gained quite a following from many not-so-happy Disney-goers.
“Price difference of Same Disney Outfits??” Titles the video.
Amanda stands in the park store and shares her most recent shopping discovery. She films her face in amazement while staring at the items.
“Probably the biggest scam I have ever seen in Disney,” Amanda begins. “Probably ever.”
What was the overpriced Disney item?
Amanda flips the camera around to show two pairs of his-and-hers matching plaid pajama sets.
“The men’s Mickey PJ’s are $39.99, but the women’s mini ones are $59.99. They are the exact same set, just one’s Mickey and one’s Minnie,” Amanda says.
Amanda brings the price tag in sight of the camera and shares the discrepancy. Holding the price tag, Amanda shakes her hand in frustration.
“Why the heck is there a $20 difference? Like that is the biggest scam and the biggest pink tax I have seen yet. There’s no reason for this,” Amanda concludes.
And in just under a minute, the video is cut-off. But Amanda’s audience didn’t let her leave it at just that. Rather, they came up and shared some discrepancies in the video they saw themselves.
Viewers can’t believe the pink tax difference at Disney
“Well I did notice you showed medium for men and large for women. Did you check the same sizes or are you chasing clicks?” one commenter questioned, creating controversy among viewers.
So of course, Amanda created a follow-up video.
“As far as I’m aware Disney doesn’t price different based on size and based on gender,” Amanda responds to the viewer.
“I flicked through them even before I made the video just to make sure there wasn’t an error,” she continues.
So while it may seem as though Disney changed their pricing based off size, Amanda allegedly made sure this wasn’t the case before posting the content.
Amanda also began to address a series of other concerns with her original video in her follow-up, explaining that this incident wasn’t just a tagging error.
“The case member is the one that told us about the price difference, so realistically if it was just a price mistake, if the cast member saw it, she would have just pulled it off the shelf,” Amanda states.
Taking a deeper look into the pajamas themselves, Amanda also clarifies that there was truly a minimal difference between the two sets.
“These pajamas are the exact same, the only difference was the buttons and the little embroidered Mickey and Minnie. That does not warrant a $20 difference,” Amanda says.
What do they cost online?
Finally, Amanda addressed one final viewer concern.
“What’s weird is that they are both priced at a realistic $49.99 online,” The concern states in the original video.
Amanda responded to the comment explaining that Disney’s online stores are a completely different entity from the parks and therefore have the ability to price their products differently. This means that the online stores allegedly even have sales that the parks don’t, explaining the price difference.
“They are $50 on shop Disney right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still $10 more in the parks then they are online,” Amanda says.
The final comment left of the original article that gave the most reasonable explanation of this “pink tax” was this:
@happilyamanda_ The actually might be the biggest rip off ever when they are the same exact thing #disney #disneyparks #disneyworld #worldofdisney #wdw #disneyprices #ripoff #pricedifference ♬ original sound – HappilyAmanda_
“It’s because the wife/girlfriend is the one most likely to want the matching set, and if the men’s one is cheaper it’s easier to convince them to make the purchase because it’s a ‘deal.’ It’s dirty af,” the comment said.
And while Amanda nor Disney never addressed this to be true, it could lead as a good explanation of why the park is placing such odd prices on certain items.
The Daily Dot reached out to Amanda (@happilyamanda_) via TikTok direct message as well as Walt Disney World via their press email.
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