Thread: Trump Slams Nordstrom Six Days After It Drops Ivanka Line

Trump Slams Nordstrom Six Days After It Drops Ivanka Line

Feb 8 2017, 2:45 pm ET

by Ben Popken

President Donald J. Trump hit back at Nordstrom this morning on Twitter after the retailer said it wasn't buying his daughter Ivanka's clothing line for this season.

"My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom," wrote Trump. "She is a great person — always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!"

The tweet was sent at 10:51 a.m., twenty-one minutes after the president's daily intelligence briefing was scheduled to start.

The official Twitter account of the president, @POTUS, later retweeted the posting from his personal @realDonaldTrump account.

"This is a direct attack on his policies and her name," Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer later said of Nordstrom's move during an afternoon press conference.

The blowup comes six days after Nordstrom announced it would not order Ivanka's collection this season. The luxury department store chain denied that the move was in response to a #GrabYourWallet campaign orchestrated to get the store to stop carrying Ivanka Trump's brand in protest of her father's policies.

Nordstrom didn't respond to a request for comment. In a statement last week Nordstrom it said it routinely trims brands each year and "in this case, based on the brand's performance we've decided not to buy it for this season."

A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump told NBC News that the brand had been selling well and the move was in response to pressure from advocacy groups -- a claim Nordstrom denied.

"This was absolutely not political — it was exclusively based on the performance of the brand," a Nordstrom spokesperson told apparel site Refinery29. "Simply put, the performance has been difficult over the past year."

The retailer also denied that the move was related to an internal memo offering support and resources to employees affected by Trump's travel ban sent the day before.

The Ivanka Trump spokesperson that though the shoe order had been canceled and the line was pulled from the website, some of the spring collection would still be sold in stores. In a tweet Nordstrom said customers will still see Ivanka Trump product in stores until it sells out.

Other retailers have recently stepped back from carrying Ivanka Trump products. Neiman Marcus has stopped selling her jewelry on its website. TJ Maxx on Wednesday instructed employees to toss Ivanka Trump signage into the garbage and mix her clothes in with their regular sales racks, the New York Times reported.

Trump's tweet appeared in the middle of a news cycle that has Trump's travel ban on majority Muslim countries facing a skeptical federal appeals court. Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues were also catching airtime as they objected to Warren being silenced in a Senate debate.

It will likely draw fresh attention to concerns over potential entanglements between Trump's family businesses and his presidential power.

Already, Democratic Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey has retweeted Trump, adding "CC: @OfficeGovEthics."

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/cons...a-line-n718396

Feb 8, 2017 @ 02:28 PM

Nordstrom Drops Ivanka Trump Products, Donald Trump Tweets 'Unfair'

Laura Heller, Contributor

Nordstrom will stop selling Ivanka Trump's product line following a growing backlash against retailers that carry products bearing the Trump name. But the news doesn't sit well with her father, who tweeted about the retailer treating her "unfairly."

Nordstrom confirmed that following a review, it would no longer carry the brand. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted:

The department store chain said the brand was simply evaluated and removed based on sales. Whether that's due to natural sales decline or a concerted effort by boycotters is unknown.

Retailers are not in the habit of carrying merchandise that doesn't sell.

"Trump stuff, as well as his reality show, were very popular at the outset like many celebrity rollouts, but then fizzled," says fellow Forbes contributor and Columbia University Director of Retail Studies, Mark A. Cohen. "Similarly, his daughter’s merchandise was well received at the outset then it all died. No sell throughs equals no support for her line."

A spokesperson for Ivanka Trump's brand responded to Nordstrom's decision with the following statement, according to reports:

The Ivanka Trump brand continues to expand across categories and distribution with increased customer support, leading us to experience significant year-over-year revenue growth in 2016. We believe that the strength of a brand is measured not only by the profits it generates, but the integrity it maintains. The women behind the brand represent a diverse group of professionals and we are proud to say that the Ivanka Trump brand continues to embody the principles upon which it was founded. It is a company built to inspire women with solution-oriented offerings, created to celebrate and service the many aspects of their lives.

#GrabYourWallet's list of companies that carry Trump-branded products or supported his candidacy, has been trending on social media and is being updated to reflect companies that have since stopped carrying the products.

This week department store chain Belk, Jet.com, HSN and ShopStyle removed most Trump family products from their sites, according to #GrabYourWallet.

But President Trump's tweet adds another twist to the tale. In January, just prior to his inauguration, he lashed out regarding criticism of L.L. Bean when activists called for a boycott of the brand based on campaign contributions made to Trump by an heiress of the founding family.

Now that he's president there could be legal ramifications. At least one member of Congress suggested that Nordstrom could sue President Trump under the California Unfair Competition Law. And Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey brought the tweet to the attention of the Office of Government Ethics.

Lately the retail beat has become more of the boycott beat with both sides - Left and Right - quick to cry "boycott" regarding President Trump. Last week, Starbucks came under fire from Trump supporters for announcing it would hire 10,000 refugees in the next five years.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahel.../#1e6cfee32ab5

TJ Maxx and Marshall’s Stores Told to Stop Promoting Ivanka Trump Products

by David Bixenspan | 2:17 pm, February 8th, 2017

In light of Nordstrom dropping “First Daughter” Ivanka Trump‘s clothing line and her father, President Donald Trump, tweeting that “she has been treated unfairly,” more bad news has come out for Ivanka. The New York Times reports that last week, The TJX Companies, the parent company of Marshall’s and TJ Maxx, told stores to throw out all of the promotional signs/display stands for Ivanka-branded merchandise and stock the items on the racks with everything else in the store. Here’s the text of the memo:

Effective immediately, please remove all Ivanka Trump merchandise from features and mix into the runs. All Ivanka Trump signs should be discarded.

The “runs” refers to the racks and bins that are not part of a particular promotion. If you’ve ever been to a TJ Maxx store, then you know just how accurate that messy-sounding term is. The stores, while offering good prices, tend to be quite unorganized and haphazard, to the point that The Onion once parodied how they constantly look like they’re in the midst of a liquidation sale. It’s generally not a store you go to if you’re looking for specific brands or models, and the new move should make it much more difficult to find Ivanka Trump products within.

Doreen Thompson, a spokeswoman for TJX, issued this statement to the New York Times confirming that the memo was legitimate:

The communication was intended to instruct stores to mix this line of merchandise into our racks, not to remove it from the sales floor. We offer a rapidly changing selection of merchandise for our customers, and brands are featured based on a number of factors.

She wouldn’t say if this was out of the ordinary, though an employee with several years’ worth of experience told the Times that it was the first time they had ever heard of anything like this happening.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/tj-ma...rump-products/

What has Ivanka ever done to you? You cater to a bunch of Violent, Evil Snowflakes to punish a hard working, good-hearted, wonderful person like Ivanka Trump as part of their Losers Revenge against Donald Trump??!!! These people in the boycott aren't your customers. They're fat, ugly, pimply-faced losers who wouldn't even fit in an Ivanka dress. They're the people crying on election night. They're the people claiming they're nasty and sleep on blood-stained sheets. They're the people who have to be paid to show up at a protest. They're the people who want to blow up the White House. They're the people who want a military coup to overthrow our government. They're the losers whose mouths are bigger than their whole heads.

You all are disgusting!! Shame on you all. And you pretend to be the people who support women's rights? Your actions have proved your position to be completely false.

Nordstrom broke the curse of the Trump tweet

By Danielle Paquette February 8 at 3:08 PM

A Trump tweet can move markets.

After President Trump slammed Lockheed Martin on Dec. 23 for the “tremendous cost” of its fighter jets, the company’s stock price dropped $2.75 (2 percent). Less than two weeks later, he blasted General Motors for assembling cars in Mexico, and the automaker’s share value dropped 24 cents (.7 percent). Then he took aim at Toyota for building a new Mexican plant, delivering an apparent 64-cent blow (.07 percent).

But Nordstrom, Trump's latest Twitter target, seems largely immune to the president’s public bashing. On Wednesday morning, he criticized the retailer for dropping Ivanka Trump products — and its stock value climbed.

Nordstrom shares took a slight dive before quickly recovering. Less than two hours later, the price had crept past its pre-tweet standing. By 4:20 p.m., it was up more than 4 percent:

So, is the Trump tweet losing its power? Not necessarily, said Kimberly Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginia.

Nordstrom, for example, is no Lockheed Martin, which sells aircraft to the United States. This time, Trump wasn’t coming to the defense of taxpayers, who ultimately foot the bill for the fighter jets the president called overpriced. He looked to be standing up for his daughter, whose business relationship with the retailer has come to a halt. That has nothing to do with economics or public policy.

Last year, liberal shoppers called for a boycott of all Trump products, including Ivanka’s clothing at Nordstrom. The retailer suggested that it’s dropping her goods because of poor sales.

Of course, nobody knows exactly why stock prices go up or down on any given day. And perhaps Nordstrom will take a slide later.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer responded to questions from reporters, Feb. 8, about President Trump's tweet castigating Nordstrom for dropping his daughter’s apparel line. (Reuters)

While Trump could theoretically threaten Lockheed Martin’s federal contracts, however, or push measures that shake the auto industry — moves that could dampen a firm’s performance and therefore sting shareholders — ranting about a clothing line is less likely to unnerve investors, Whitler said. Plus, she added, Trump regularly hurls insults.

“Over time, consumers become numb to a message,” she said. “At some point, with the velocity of Trump’s tweets, it’s likely that investors may become more ‘numb’ to his tweets and react in a more muted fashion.”

After the president’s Nordstrom barb, the company began trending on Twitter. People began voicing their desire to shop:

It’s unclear how social media, particularly partisan social media, could influence investors. Nordstrom’s true armor, though, could be its customers. The company’s target shoppers are generally women, above-average earners, millennial to middle age. Trump voters, meanwhile, were overwhelmingly older men, most of whom lacked college degrees (which are tied to higher salaries).

Mary Embry, a retail merchandising professor at Indiana University, said investors who understand Nordstrom probably sense a Trump tweet wouldn’t deter the company’s consumer base.

“Politics certainly do matter in fashion,” she said, “but the strength of the Nordstrom stock validates the strength of the decision making of that retailer that is based on absolutely knowing its customer.”

Also, she said: “The president is not seen as having any particular expertise on fashion.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.196450718f2d

Nordstrom’s true armor, though, could be its customers. The company’s target shoppers are generally women, above-average earners, millennial to middle age. Trump voters, meanwhile, were overwhelmingly older men, most of whom lacked college degrees (which are tied to higher salaries).

Yes, it could be "women" "above-average earners", but it would not be all those women, it wouldn't be high earners and above average earners who supported Trump or even Democrat women who are above-average earners who don't believe in trying to bankrupt another wonderful, hard-working woman with a great product line. These would be the fair-minded Democrat women, and the Independents most of whom voted for Trump. So the "customer" routine really doesn't explain it.

So, I think we need to look inward for an explanation, such as Nordstrom employees, Nordstrom pension fund, and since they're headquartered in Seattle, oh my yes, Seattle locals all energized with their "tech-world" trying to take Trump's travel ban down, and of course government workers, government public workers unions, and the NEA, you know the Trump Haters with Your Bucks.

I don't see what the big deal is. All retail operations have the right to pull any line they want and for whatever reason. If consumers are unhappy, I'm sure they'll voice their objections.

Of course it's Nordstrom's right to do whatever they want to do. They told Ivanka they weren't going to reorder for awhile in early January. So why the "big deal" about that in the media 6 days ago? What other lines did they decide pull? Where are their "big deal" press announcements on them?

Unfair treatment is not the decision to not reorder for awhile. The unfair treatment was making a public spectacle out of Ivanka because they weren't going to reorder for awhile, when they didn't do that to any other supplier. Why would a fair-minded company do that?

Trump knows why they did that, so he decided to stand up for Ivanka and did a Trump Tweet about it. Good for him!!

That sucks!

I love Nordstrom, it has always been my favorite retailer and now I am forced to boycott it.

And believe me, I am what they call a VIP customer.

Retailers should think twice before putting there 2 cents into politics as they are disappearing rapidly and if not careful Nordstrom will meet the fate of Mervyns, Kmart, Linens n Things, Cachet, Borders, Broadway Stores, thalhimers, Wienstocks, Emporium Capwell, Belk Stores, Computer Citiy and the list goes on.

Well I hope they get hit like Macy's did.

Nordstrom’s Motives for Dumping Ivanka’s Line Questioned; Stock Performance Overstated?

By Brittany De Lea Published February 09, 2017

As some big-name retailers have reportedly been dropping Ivanka Trump’s apparel and accessory lines, the quality of Ms. Trump’s products has been questioned on the national stage, as stores claim the items have not been selling.

The first retailer to reportedly dump Trump’s brand was Nordstrom (JWN), which sent a statement to Fox News on Wednesday saying, “We made this decision based on performance. Over the past year, and particularly in the last half of 2016, sales of the brand have steadily declined to the point where it didn’t make good business sense for us to continue with the line for now.”

Yet, while the luxury department store chain says there were no political motives involved, on January 30, just days prior to the announcement, the company’s three presidents sent a memo to employees addressing President Trump’s executive order on immigration, as first reported by Seattle newspaper The Stranger.

“Last Friday an Executive Order was signed by the President of the United States related to immigration. This subject is one we're watching closely - our family’s heritage, the company’s roots, and the diverse employees and customers we serve are top of mind,” the memo began. “It’s important that we reiterate our values to all of you and make it clear that we support each of our employees. We will continue to value diversity, inclusion, respect, and you can count on that.”

The note went on to say the company was in the process of determining how the order would impact each of its employees, causing some to question whether there is a political connection with the decision to drop Trump’s line.

“We shared our decision on the brand with Ivanka Trump personally in early January. The [immigration] email…came out January 30,” a spokesperson for Nordstrom told FOX Business.

Representatives for Ivanka Trump’s clothing line did not immediately return FOX Business’ request for comment.

On Wednesday, following a President Trump tweet about the retailer’s treatment of his daughter, it was Nordstrom’s stock that critics were focused on, which gained more than 4% in spite of the President’s comment.

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by @Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!
7:51 AM - 8 Feb 2017
25,588 25,588 Retweets 129,307 129,307 likes

Headlines erupted across the media praising the stock. A column in the Chicago Tribune called the President “a Paper Tiger,” while Fortune claimed Nordstrom had “broke the Donald Trump Tweet Curse.”

The stock did in fact drop around the time the President sent the tweet before recovering throughout the day.

However, Nordstrom’s stock may have just been following a larger industry trend, according to Peter Tchir, managing director of Brean Capital.

“It should…be noted that all retail stocks did well - XRT a retail ETF was up [on the day],” he said.

Tchir believes there is also a notable distinction among the effects of tweets where the President has a vested policy interest and his personal tweets.

“Companies where he has attacked their pricing for important government products have reacted poorly as there is reason to believe that he will make progress on pricing and near term it could impact profitability,” he said.

Nordstrom’s stock was up 3.5% as of Thursday afternoon. It is down more than 9.4% over the past year.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/...verstated.html