March 29, 2024

While some retailers fail to support Black lives, there is a growing trend of shopping groups on social media created for and by Black women propelling social change. For them, shopping isn’t just about products. It’s about community building, bonding over buying and, sometimes, encouraging multi-generational Black wealth.

Too often, there aren’t spaces exclusively for the collective joy and protection of Black women, especially on the internet, group leaders say. When Black women aren’t co-opted, assimilated, or silenced, they add, they thrive.

USA TODAY spoke with Black women online groups for Trader Joe’s, Costco, Target and Starbucks by Zoom and email. Here’s what they had to say.

Black girls in Trader Joe’s Instagram group

An Instagram group with 218,000 members, Black Girls In Trader Joe’s, was formed by Cleveland, Ohio resident, Mercedes “Dee” Davis, who also created Facebook hashtag #BlackGirlsInTraderJoes and a private FB group exclusively for Black women that now has over 44,000 members.