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A Trump voters message to retailers: Keep your mouths shut about our president
A Trump voter’s 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. ... “I’m 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. ... “I’m very disappointed in what’s happened with the Trump line,” she tells him. “I hate to do this — I’m 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 Trump’s 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, that’s mean,” said Carson, who voted for Trump. “I feel very strongly about that.”
....
Some companies have announced in recent weeks that they would be culling Ivanka Trump’s 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. It’s difficult to gauge how widespread these efforts are, or whether they will inspire real change, but stories about them are bubbling up.
....
A few days later, Carson is back at the mall. It’s 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. “It’s not appropriate,” she says. When he refuses — it’s his opinion against hers, he tells her — she enlists the mall’s 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 Trump’s victory and with it, swift backlash from the left. Take, for instance, the Women’s 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 I’m sorry, I’m Catholic, I’m 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, I’m going to go and march with her in the Women’s March? I’m sorry, but that, to me, isn’t doing business.”
....
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 brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season.”
....
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
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. ... “I’m 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. ... “I’m very disappointed in what’s happened with the Trump line,” she tells him. “I hate to do this — I’m 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 Trump’s 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, that’s mean,” said Carson, who voted for Trump. “I feel very strongly about that.”
....
Some companies have announced in recent weeks that they would be culling Ivanka Trump’s 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. It’s difficult to gauge how widespread these efforts are, or whether they will inspire real change, but stories about them are bubbling up.
....
A few days later, Carson is back at the mall. It’s 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. “It’s not appropriate,” she says. When he refuses — it’s his opinion against hers, he tells her — she enlists the mall’s 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 Trump’s victory and with it, swift backlash from the left. Take, for instance, the Women’s 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 I’m sorry, I’m Catholic, I’m 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, I’m going to go and march with her in the Women’s March? I’m sorry, but that, to me, isn’t doing business.”
....
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 brand’s performance, we’ve decided not to buy it for this season.”
....
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
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Response to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)
