Trump line dwindling from racks at Galleria
It’s a long, lonely hunt for Ivanka Trump products at the Galleria. And Houston shoppers appear to be OK with that.
Sales associates at Saks and Neiman Marcus say their locations never carried her collection, though the items could be ordered from the chains’ websites.
At Macy’s, there’s a lone shift dress — in a blush pink so pale the dress would require an expertly executed spray tan to pull off — hanging from the 20 percent-off rack, along with one-offs from other designers. They never carried her line at this Macy’s, says a cashier; that dress was a return from a purchase at another Macy’s. Things are different at Nordstrom. The company made headlines last week when it announced its stores would no longer carry the Ivanka Trump line of accessories and apparel. In the Galleria location, a halfdozen dresses hang from the last remaining Ivanka rack. No new orders will be placed when those are gone.
The company’s statement noted that the decision to sever ties with the president’s daughter’s fashion line was not politically motivated. Instead, Nordstrom cited a steady decline in demand by consumers.
But plenty of people read between the lines — including President Donald Trump himself, who lashed out at the company on Twitter, writing that his “daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly” by the company.
It’s a familiar move in the president’s playbook, one that has had ripple effects in the economy. When Trump tweeted ill of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the companies’ stocks suffered. Nordstrom’s stock dipped shortly after the tweet, but it has been pulling ahead in recent days.
Supporting Nordstrom
And some Houston shoppers are tickled pink — a very pale blush pink — about what they see as a store’s willingness to stand up for what is right.
On Friday afternoon, Noushin Dehbandi drove from her home in the Energy Corridor to the Galleria for a girls’ day out, with her mother, daughter and sister-in-law.
“It’s inconvenient to come here, but today we had some shopping to do,” said Dehbandi. “We could go to Macy’s in the Memorial mall, but we decided to come here to shop at the Galleria, so we could go to Nordstron’s — because of the Ivanka Trump decision.”
She bought a lipstick, as did her mother, who is visiting from Iran. Her sisterin-law, Reyhaneh Saedi, bought a purse.
“I’m so happy they got rid of it,” Saedi said of the Ivanka Trump fashion line. When asked what it is she doesn’t like about Ivanka Trump, she had a simple answer: “Her father.”
It was the travel ban issues by the White House that really tipped Dehbandi over the edge, she said.
Still, Nordstrom isn’t talking politics.
“The thing about that is they didn’t remove the line for political reasons,” said a Nordstrom employee who asked not to be named. “The buyers made that decision a year ago. The brand itself wasn’t doing very well.”
But the company has left a few Easter eggs to stir speculation. In January, Nordstrom’s top executives sent a memo to their employees in January, making their position on immigration known. “It’s important that we reiterate our values to all of you and make it clear that we support each of our employees,” the memo states. “We will continue to value diversity, inclusion, respect, and you can count on that.”
Resisting with wallet
It’s that sentiment that won the company business with Houston attorney Wilbourn Woodward, who, before this week, had never bought anything at Nordstrom.
“It’s getting warmer, and I needed some shorts,” said Woodward. “And I decided to get them from there. Clearly there are many ways to resist, and protest the decisions of this president, and that was just one way I thought of doing it.”
He calls it resisting with his wallet. And he thinks it might be the best way to get a point across to a president who touts his business acumen.
“The president is very obsessed with market forces, what’s popular,” said Woodward. “What are people watching, what are they buying? What brands are winning versus losing: You know, ‘the failing New York Times’ or whatever. So if he’s paying attention, that’s a good way to get his attention — buying and consuming those things that speak against him.”