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- Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s and other companies terminate their partnerships with MyPillow.
- MyPillow CEO says companies have cut ties because he is spreading baseless theories of voter fraud.
- Industry experts have said it will hurt MyPillow and put pressure on its direct selling business.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
The companies’ decisions to cut ties with MyPillow are shaping up to be a blow to the controversial pillow company.
Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s confirmed this week that they are severing ties with MyPillow. Fintech start-up Affirm told Insider it had cut ties as well.
According to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, many other stores, including HEB, Kroger and BJ’s, have told him they will no longer sell MyPillow products. (These brands did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.)
In statements, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s said they would no longer sell MyPillow products due to poor sales. Affirm did not provide an explanation for ending the business relationship.
“As previously announced, we have streamlined our assortment to drop a number of underperforming items and brands. This includes the My Pillow product line,” a spokesperson for Bed Bath & Beyond said in an e- mail. “Our decisions are data driven, customer inspired and drive substantial growth in our core destination categories.”
Lindell, however, said he was skeptical of companies’ decisions to cut ties soon after news broke he faces a legal threat from voting technology company Dominion, linked to his spread of baseless electoral fraud theories.
Read more: MyPillow guy says God helped him beat a crack addiction to build a multi-million dollar empire. Now his religious devotion to Trump threatens to bring it all down.
“It’s a 100% cancellation culture,” Lindell, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, told Insider in an interview.
“They were afraid of being boycotted by customers because they live in fear of all these attack groups,” Lindell added. “And it’s not their customers. What’s going to happen to them now is all real customers are going to be very angry.”
Businesses that cut ties will ’cause pain’
While Bed Bath & Beyond announced the end of its partnership with My Pillow, a store in Crofton, Md., Pillows were still in stock this week.
John F. Druhan / insider
Chris Alleri, the founder of branding consultancy Mulberry & Astor, told Insider he also believes companies are cutting ties because of Lindell’s insistence on spreading baseless theories that President Joe Biden “stole” the election. However, unlike Lindell, he believes these companies are making the right decision.
“Lindell is being abandoned right and left by legitimate retailers, not because he’s friends with Trump, not because he’s a victim, because he’s got a big mouth who spat lies,” he said. Alleri said in an email to Insider. “No brand wants to associate with a dumpster fire like this. Advancing a false story of a stolen election has consequences.”
These consequences could have a considerable impact on the activity of My Pillows. Neil Saunders, managing director of analytics firm GlobalData, said sales through retail partnerships have become “a much bigger part of MyPillow’s business.”
“Losing these sales channels will cause some pain and put more pressure on direct-to-consumer commerce,” Saunders said. “It’s also true that distribution through retailers has broadened MyPillow’s audience beyond infomercials digesting consumers, so the business will now have to find other ways to reach these potential customers. .
MyPillow CEO says he’s not worried about partnerships ending
Lindell is a strong supporter of Trump.
SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Not all businesses cut ties.
Costco announced this week that it plans to continue selling MyPillow products. A representative told SFGate on Thursday that the company has “contractual commitments to MyPillow which we intend to honor, as we seek to do with all of our suppliers.
Walmart continues to sell a line of MyPillow products, despite some pillows being inundated with one-star reviews.
“If you sleep with that pillow on, you might wake up to a fascist like the CEO,” one such review read.
Walmart did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Lindell told Insider that he expects companies that continue to stock MyPillow to see their sales increase. Additionally, he said, he expects MyPillow’s direct sales to increase as a result of backlash.
“We’re going to be very busy,” Lindell said. “And these stores are going to be the losers because they don’t have the products that people want. It’s sad to them that they bowed to these leftist groups that – all they do is is attacking. ”
Alleri is skeptical of Lindell’s confidence.
“Maybe some of Trump’s nerd die-hards might want to buy his products, that’s not enough to build a legitimate and lasting brand,” Alleri said.
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