More and more retailers are slowly making moves to distance themselves from the Ivanka Trump brand. First, there was Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus; then, other stockists like Belk and Jet announced they would no longer sell the brand, Fast Company reported. Now, it appears T.J. Maxx might be the next, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times which outlined instructions for employees about how they should display the collection in stores.
"Effective immediately, please remove all Ivanka Trump merchandise from features," the letter from TJX Companies (which owns T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, and Home Goods) explained, per The Times. The letter also notes that Ivanka-branded goods should instead be mixed in with the retailer's other brands on offer (rather than being displayed more prominently within the store). The Times reports that T.J. Maxx and Marshall's employees were told to throw away any signs promoting Ivanka Trump garb. The latter is one of the more surprising tidbits of the leaked memo, as an anonymous employee told the paper it was an order she hadn't gotten before in all the years she's been at the company.
In a statement provided to Refinery29, a spokesperson for T.J. Maxx explained that, at this moment, the company still sells Ivanka Trump items, and that its mission is to provide customers with a constantly-shifting selection of brand-name items. "From time to time, we communicate with our stores about how to handle merchandise," the company said. "The communication we sent instructed stores to mix this line of merchandise into our racks, not to remove it from the sales floor." The spokesperson did not address the reports of employees being told to throw out all Ivanka Trump signs.
Ironically enough, this report dropped on the same day that President Donald Trump tweeted at Nordstrom accusing the retailer of treating his daughter "so unfairly," as a response to its decision to end their business relationship. So, T.J. Maxx's social media team might want to brace themselves for some possible presidential feedback on the reported re-merchandizing...
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