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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Trump voters message to retailers: Keep your mouths shut about our president
By Abha Bhattarai February 25 at 8:12 AM
Mary Carson picks up her leopard-print tote bag and tugs on her leopard-print scarf. ... Im just going to do a little bit of business, the 77-year-old says as she walks into Neiman Marcus at the Tysons Galleria in Northern Virginia and asks for the manager. He appears in a pinstripe suit and shakes her hand. ... Im very disappointed in whats happened with the Trump line, she tells him. I hate to do this Im not a real activist but I learned a long, long time ago that you cannot mix business and politics. ... The manager listens patiently. ... Carson, who worked in marketing before she retired, pulls out her Neiman Marcus credit card and prepares to give it back. It was the obvious thing to do, she says, once the retailer stopped carrying Ivanka Trumps jewelry line on its website a few weeks ago. ... If the company feels like they can hurt the daughter of a president by doing something like this, thats mean, said Carson, who voted for Trump. I feel very strongly about that.
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Some companies have announced in recent weeks that they would be culling Ivanka Trumps brand. Others have faced pressure from left-leaning groups to drop other Trump-family products. In response, conservative voters who say they are tired of the negativity surrounding the new president are staging their own boycotts against mainstream retailers. Its difficult to gauge how widespread these efforts are, or whether they will inspire real change, but stories about them are bubbling up.
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A few days later, Carson is back at the mall. Its Sunday afternoon, just after church, and she sees something that startles her: a T-shirt that says F*** America prominently displayed in a store entrance. ... She walks in and asks the manager to remove it. Its not appropriate, she says. When he refuses its his opinion against hers, he tells her she enlists the malls management. The shirt is removed. ... These bursts of negativity and displays of hatred, as she sees them, have been mounting since before the election. Then came Trumps victory and with it, swift backlash from the left. Take, for instance, the Womens March on Washington the day after the inauguration. Carson read up on it online. ... I could not believe the reasons they were doing this, she said. It was like, you know, pro-abortion and Im sorry, Im Catholic, Im a little religious and old-fashioned. ... When her longtime yoga teacher sent an email offering $5 classes before the march, Carson wrote back and told her she would no longer attend the studio. ... I was very nice, very congenial, she said. But what did she think: If she gives me $10 off one yoga lesson, Im going to go and march with her in the Womens March? Im sorry, but that, to me, isnt doing business.
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Nordstrom says its decision to drop the brand was based on plummeting sales, not politics. Company documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal showed that sales of Ivanka Trump clothing and shoes fell more than 70 percent in the weeks before the presidential election. ... Each year we cut about 10 percent {of brands} and refresh our assortment with about the same amount, the company said. In this case, based on the brands performance, weve decided not to buy it for this season.
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Abha Bhattarai is a business reporter for The Washington Post. She has previously written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and the St. Petersburg Times. Follow @abhabhattarai
Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
VMA131Marine
(4,138 posts)Business decisions can look political to either side. If a company decides to pick up Ivanka Trump products it can be argued by Trump supporters that its a business decision and by opponents that its to curry favour with POTUS. Of course it doesn't help that Trump has actively, and perhaps illegally, putting his tiny hand on the scale by promoting his daughter's products.
Warpy
(111,254 posts)Oh, come off it, you stupid twit, no store in this country is going to try to sell that one, much less display it. That is a lie and an extremely clumsy one, at that.
I suggest you quit slandering people you don't know and confess your sins, honey, or you're heading to the hell you want the rest of us to go to.
Lotusflower70
(3,077 posts)Such is life. You don't have to agree with the stores decision but they have the right to make their own choices. I happen to agree with not selling Ivanka's shit line though.
Beartracks
(12,809 posts)While she sounds like a perfectly nice lady, and of course she is within her rights to take her business elsewhere.... I can't help but think that she probably agrees with retailers who want to refuse services to gay people -- which is EXPLICITLY mixing business and politics.
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sinkingfeeling
(51,448 posts)business and politics.
Beartracks
(12,809 posts)She may not realize it yet, but that's probably how her brain justifies things.
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mwooldri
(10,303 posts)... to actively shop at places and buy Trump stuff.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Tell her she is just one voice of a flailing minority and she should stop being a snowflake.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)She can go to fucking hell.