Last year, a presidential hopeful named Donald Trump made highly publicized calls on social media to boycott Macy's (M) Today, Trump is visiting the White House to prepare to assume the world's most powerful office. In the meantime, shares of the storied department store retailer have struggled, but Macy's chairman Terry Lundgren thinks his company did the right thing.
The dispute between Macy's and Trump started in July 2015, when the company said it would discontinue its Donald Trump line of menswear as a result of Trump's derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. Macy's said it stood for diversity and that Trump's statements were inconsistent with that philosophy.
"We made our decision about a year and a half ago, and stand by our decision," Lundgren told TheStreet in an interview on Thursday. "As I have said, we wouldn't carry product from a political candidate -- and now a politician -- whether they be Republican or Democrat. If Hillary Clinton had a line of women's suits or handbags I wouldn't carry those either. I just think we don't want to be a politically associated company, we sell to everybody at Macy's and have a broad and diverse customer base."
Trump wasted no time unloading on Macy's via his well-followed Twitter and Instagram accounts, launching his call to "boycott" the company on July 1, 2015.
Throughout 2015, Trump tweeted or retweeted some 34 anti-Macy's tweets according to a review of his feed by TheStreet. He has been far quieter this year, only tweeting about Macy's once -- it was a post in January pointing out Macy's 46% stock price plunge in 2015. Dating back to Trump's initial boycott via Twitter on July 1 2015, shares of Macy's have shed about 43%. By comparison, shares of Macy's mall-based rival J.C. Penney (JCP) have been relatively unchanged during that same time span.
