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Nordstrom Says Trump Tweet Had ‘Negligible’ Impact On Sales

Phil WahbaBy Phil WahbaSenior Writer
Phil WahbaSenior Writer

Phil Wahba is a senior writer at Fortune primarily focused on leadership coverage, with a prior focus on retail.

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President Trump’s feud with Nordstrom (JWN) has turned out to be neither good nor bad for the luxury department store chain, so far at least.

Earlier this month, the president took to twitter to complain that Nordstrom had treated his daughter Ivanka “so unfairly” for dropping her fashion line from its stores, a move the retailer ascribed to weak sales for her merchandise.

In response to a question on conference call Thursday to discuss Nordstrom’s quarterly results, Co-President Peter Nordstrom called the impact on sales “negligible,” adding that it was “not really discernible one way or the other.”

After Trump’s tweet, Nordstrom’s stock surged to many people’s surprise.

Nordstrom has been under pressure from the #GrabYourWallet campaign to drop Ivanka Trump merchandise over her father’s policies, lest it face a boycott. The retailer found itself in the unenviable position of being caught in a tug of war between supporters and critics of the president and his daughter.
The retailers’s shares were up 3% in premarket trading on Friday after it reported earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s earnings expectations in the fiscal fourth quarter, helped by fewer promotions. Total revenue though rose 2.4% to $4.32 billion, a hair under the $4.35 billion analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters.
And while its discount “Rack” business continues to flourish, particularly online, its main department stores saw comparable sales fall 6.8%.