'Backlash' against Walgreens selling Hallmark cards 'exclusively for Black people' lacks context

In August 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that the retailer Walgreens started selling a line of greeting cards exclusively for Black people called Hallmark Mahogany.

One popular X post claimed Walgreens faced "backlash" for the decision to stock Hallmark Mahogany cards. The user captioned their post, "Walgreens is under backlash after shoppers noticed that they have started selling cards exclusively for Black people."

(X user @dom_lucre)

The claim, accompanied by a video of a shopper allegedly discovering the cards inside a Walgreens store, circulated widely (archived) on X (archived) and Instagram (archived), gaining hundreds of thousands of views. The TikTok user who originally posted the video that circulated alongside the claim later removed it from the platform.

However, though Walgreens did stock products from the Hallmark Mahogany brand on its online store at the time of this writing in August 2025, a spokesperson for the retailer told Snopes this was not a new development. According to the spokesperson, Walgreens believed it "would have had these cards in our stores since around the time Hallmark launched them, the late 80s." Hallmark introduced the Mahogany name in a 16-card promotion in 1987 and established it as a year-round brand in 1991.

According to the card manufacturer's website, its Mahogany brand was "the most extensive offering of cards available for African American consumers." Though the cards were tailored toward Black or African American consumers, we found no evidence that Hallmark prevented other consumers from buying them. Given the above, we rate this claim a mixture of true and false elements.

Hallmark wrote on its website:

Mahogany is a personal expression brand that provides an authentic and engaging experience for African Americans and those inspired by African American culture. The card line exists to enhance emotional connections between family, friends and the community by capturing what's most beloved and valued about African American culture.

The company said that its biggest markets for the Mahogany brand were Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

This wasn't the first time Snopes looked into a claim about greeting cards. Previously, we investigated whether greeting card companies really invented Valentine's Day.