On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered,” network regular Geraldo Rivera blasted department store retailer Nordstrom’s for dropping the Ivanka Trump brand and recalled how excited the company had been when they and Rivera worked with the brand on the Celebrity Apprentice.
Co-host Ebony Williams stated that Rivera has worked with both Ivanka Trump on “The Apprentice” and Nordstrom before asking him to speak to tweets he had sent out on Wednesday.
Rivera responded, “I think Nordstrom’s stabbed Ivanka in the back. I think what they did was really low down and dirty. I was on Celebrity Apprentice the President’s last season of the hit, prime time program and one of the tasks was Ivanka, we had to set up a shop to sell Ivanka shoes and Nordstrom’s was all over it, they were psyched about being in business with Ivanka.”
“I totally do not buy this excuse that her sales are suffering,” he continued. “They were using Ivanka to set up, I think it was the first Nordstrom’s in Manhattan if I’m not mistaken, in that new Hudson Yards development over there. And she was going to be the anchor of the retail side of it. She’s got amazingly great taste. My daughter Isabella and her girlfriends helped with that task.”
Rivera tweeted on Wednesday about Nordstrom dropping the Ivanka Trump line:
Co-host Sandra Smith added that brick and mortar retailers are having a tough time in the age of online shopping.
Several online retailers have thus far retained the Ivanka Trump line.
Last year, a call for boycotting Nordstrom’s over carrying the brand gained traction with the viral letter of a Twitter user who has since tweeted ugly criticism of counselor to President Trump, Kellyanne Conway. On November 21, 2016, Nordstrom co-president Pete Nordstrom distributed an internal email to employees which specified that the company fully intended to continue carrying the Ivanka Trump brand despite the boycott and lauded the success of the brand.
In the weeks following Nordstrom’s letter affirming the brand would be continued, boycott leader Shannon Coulter of #grabyourwallet stated that she tracked how much of the Ivanka Trump line was carried on the retailer’s website. Coulter attests that an early December count of Ivanka Trump items available on Nordstrom’s website numbered 71, within weeks of Nordstrom’s email. Little over a month later there were only 26 items, and as of this week, just four items remained visible in a search of the website.
It was February 2 that Nordstrom’s announced it would stop carrying Trump’s line due to sales numbers according to NBC News. The news came despite the internal email from just over two months earlier that assured they would continue carrying it.
One day after the announcement, though the company has spoken of remaining apolitical, an internal company email indicated otherwise. The February 3 email referenced President Trump’s executive order restricting travel from seven countries. “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,” read a portion of the email according to the Seattle PI.
Since the announcement that the line would be discontinued, the retailer has faced a harsh backlash from customers that believe the decision was indeed political.
“Ivanka was personally informed of our decision in early January,” a Nordstrom’s spokesperson told NBC News. This coincides with boycott leader Coulter’s account of a steeply decreasing availability of the brand on Nordstrom’s website in January. This indicated a very short timeline between Nordstrom’s November internal email assuring continuance of the successful brand and around two months later when Nordstrom’s says it told Ivanka Trump that it would discontinue the line.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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