Business

Trump’s Business Brands May Be Imploding

Written by SK Ashby

The New York Times conducted dozens of interviews with now former Trump customers and even cashiers to gauge what effect Trump's campaign has had on his business interests.

At least one travel company revealed that bookings for Trump hotels have dropped off a cliff and one cashier says returns of Trump merchandise have become routine.

An online travel company, Hipmunk, has found that bookings for Trump hotels on its site fell 58 percent during the first half of 2016, compared with the same period a year ago. Eric Danziger, the chief executive of Trump Hotels, said that data from sites like Hipmunk “does not provide an accurate representation of our performance." [...]

Ryan Whitacre said he was simply following company policy at a Marshalls clothing store in central Ohio when he asked a woman why she was returning an Ivanka Trump shirt this summer. “She told me she didn’t want to support that name,” he recalled.

“They want to get that name away from them as much as they can,” Mr. Whitacre added.

The Times found a few nuggets of good news for Trump as well, but those instances seem to be outweighed by overwhelmingly negative news.

Conducting these types of interviews is necessary because Trump's businesses and brands are not publicly traded companies and do not transparently report their earnings and losses. Furthermore, you can't take Trump's business's word for anything and his companies have filed for bankruptcy four times in the past.

There could be a great amount of Trump merchandise found in the clearance section and bargain bins this holiday season.