Halfords has come under fire for a ‘gender price gap’ after charging 500 per cent more for a woman’s key ring than for a man’s.
The motoring store has been selling the his’n’hers accessories featuring a metal steering wheel – but shoppers were asked to pay much more for the woman’s version.
The one for women – painted pink and marked with ‘hers’ – costs £3.
But the one marketed at men – painted black and marked with ‘his’ – costs only 50p.
A shopper who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: ‘I saw it and I thought ‘women have to pay £2.50 more to have a key ring.
‘It is really unnecessary.
‘I know it is just a key ring but I think the price difference for the same product is really bad.
‘You would buy them together, not separately, because they are for couples.
‘Therefore Halfords know they will get a certain amount of profit.
‘I just wanted it to be out there because I think it is really unfair.’
A spokesman for Halfords said it was not done on purpose.
He said: ‘We’re really sorry for any offence this may have caused.
‘We can assure customers that this was a genuine mistake due to a systems error which resulted in an incorrect price being applied to both key rings before they went on sale.
‘They are now correctly priced and will be available in store for £2.99.’
