Bed Bath & Beyond clarifies its position on selling Ivanka Trump-branded merchandise
The retailer says politics do not affect merchandising decisions.
— -- Bed Bath & Beyond is shutting down reports that it has followed other retailers in dropping Trump-branded merchandise.
The founder of the #GrabYourWallet movement -- which encourages retailers to drop the various Trump-branded product lines -- tweeted a screen grab of an email from a Bed Bath & Beyond customer service representative informing a customer, "At this time, we are no longer carrying Trump merchandise."
The Twittersphere lit up, with Trump foes and supporters sounding off about the alleged decision to drop all things Trump.
But according to the retailer, which operates more than 1,500 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the customer service representative was misinformed -- and it has apologized for the misinformation.
"We want to apologize for recent confusion caused by one of our customer service representatives," the publicly traded, New Jersey-based company said in a statement late Saturday afternoon. "Our customer service representative inadvertently provided information to a customer that was not accurate."
The retailer clarified, "We are not making our merchandising decisions based on anyone's political beliefs. We have Ivanka Trump products in some stores and carry them where consumer demand and business performance justifies it. Bed Bath & Beyond strives to provide our customers with a wide variety of high quality product choices across our businesses that fit their varying preferences."
A search of the Bed Bath & Beyond website on Saturday, however, did not yield any Trump-branded products.
Whether or not to carry Trump-branded collections has been a contentious issue for retailers. Earlier this year, Nordstrom said it would no longer sell Ivanka Trump's eponymous clothing and accessories line due to poor sales. Neiman Marcus also said it was dropping the first daughter's collection, as well.