Will Macy's become the next store to drop the Ivanka Trump brand?
An online boycott of Trump-family products is turning its sights on Macy's, with social-media users calling on the department-store chain to stop selling items from Ivanka Trump's fashion line.
In posts on Macy's Facebook wall and in Twitter posts directed to the company, users threatened to stop shopping at the chain.
"I have been a loyal Macys听customer for over 30 years, but I will no longer purchase anything from Macys听until they stop selling Ivanka Trump merchandise," .听
Pressure from the听"" boycott has built following announcements last week from Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus that they would be discontinuing sales of items from Ms. Trump's brand, citing reasons related to the brand's performance.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got thousands of brands,鈥� a Nordstrom spokesperson told the Seattle Times last week. 鈥淓ach year we cut about 10 percent and refresh our assortment with about the same amount. In this case, based on we鈥檝e decided not to buy it for this season.鈥�
Hours after the announcement, the high-end department store Neiman Marcus removed Trump鈥檚 jewelry line from its website, saying according to Racked.
But many suspect that the decisions respond to political pressure from members of the public, as 海角大神's Josh Kenworthy noted last week.
鈥淭his is a sharply divisive subject,鈥� said Nordstrom co-president Pete Nordstrom in an email to employees back in November, according to the Monitor. 鈥淣o matter what we do, we are going to end up disappointing some of our customers. Every single brand we offer is evaluated on their results 鈥撎齣f people don鈥檛 buy it, we won鈥檛 sell it.鈥�
The Ivanka Trump fashion line says the first daughter's brand is performing strongly.
鈥淭he 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,鈥� Rosemary Young, senior director of marketing at Ivanka Trump, said in a statement on Friday, . 鈥淲e believe that the strength of a brand is measured not only by the profits it generates, but the integrity it maintains.鈥�
In January, Ivanka Trump announced she would in her namesake fashion company after her father鈥檚 inauguration, in an apparent attempt to fend off conflict-of-interest controversy. But some see the name brand as being inevitably linked to her father's ideology.
鈥淭he success of Ivanka鈥檚 brand means more than immediate material wealth to the Trump family,鈥� Slate鈥檚 Christina Cauterucci . 鈥淩etailers that promote her products give her neutral, apolitical visibility. They give some measure of legitimacy and credibility to the family name, further enabling the overlap between national interests and the business interests of the president鈥檚 family.鈥�
Macy's has come under pressure to cut ties with the Trump family鈥檚 retail businesses before. In 2012, when President Trump questioned former President Barack Obama鈥檚 citizenship, progressive media-monitor group Media Matters collected more than 615,000 signatures on a petition asking Macy鈥檚 to drop Mr. Trump鈥檚 clothing line. The department store refused, saying it was Trump鈥檚 right to express his beliefs.
鈥淢any of the individuals associated with products sold at Macy鈥檚 鈥� or at any retailer, for that matter 鈥� express personal opinions that are not related to the merchandise we sell or to the philosophies of our company,鈥� Macy鈥檚 CEO Terry Lundgren wrote in a statement at that time. 鈥�.鈥�
However, this stance changed when Trump became a candidate. After making controversial claims about Mexican immigrants in 2015, Macy鈥檚 stopped selling his menswear line, which includes ties, suits, and accessories.
Macy鈥檚 may also be facing internal pressure from some of its employees to follow the other companies' lead, according to Business Insider.
"Hopefully they stop," one internal source told the site. "They can't lose any more money than they already are."
