Kathrine Frich
Wholesale and online giant the MAGA Mall reported a 30 percent drop in sales.
Running a small shop built around a single famous name is always a gamble.
When a craze is at its peak, customers line up outside and cash registers ring all day.
Once the excitement cools off, though, those same shelves can start gathering dust very fast.
Shutters coming down
Specialty shops selling gear tied to President Donald Trump are locking their doors across the United States as his poll numbers slide, according to the Irish Star and NPR.
These souvenir outlets first popped up during the 2016 presidential race, outlasting anything seen under past leaders like Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama. Now that Trump is in his second and final term, shopkeepers say fans feel less urgency to buy hats and shirts, forcing at least four stores to close this year.
In Bensalem, Pennsylvania, retired mechanic and loyal supporter Wes Alker stopped by a local shop to hunt for clearance bargains before it moved strictly online.
At that point, the Irish Star noted, the president’s average approval rating had already slipped from 50 percent at his inauguration to 44 percent. “He’s no longer a viable business model for entrepreneurs because he has peaked,” Alker told NPR.
Nine months later, Trump’s approval dropped another five points just as Bill Hays closed his superstore outside Knoxville, Tennessee.
After opening in April 2024, Hays once saw 80 shoppers waiting outside and pulled in $200,000 a month, but monthly revenue plunged to $20,000 by September. “After the inauguration, I think a lot of people felt that their job was done,” Hays said, as quoted by the Irish Star. “They didn’t have to promote MAGA or Trump.”
Hiding the gear
Hays also blamed controversial moves like government job cuts under DOGE, and he noticed shoppers asking for bags instead of putting their new clothes on right away.
“People were not wearing their colors, so to speak, like they did before the (2024) election,” Hays said. He still runs another shop in the tourist town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and will judge its future after the Christmas rush.
Meanwhile, wholesale and online giant the MAGA Mall reported a 30 percent drop in sales compared to election years when Trump was on the ballot. Company president Ron Solomon told NPR that roughly 20 dedicated Trump stores remain open nationwide.
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 69-year-old owner Rick Kligman runs two locations and is rushing to clear out old stock before a potential Democratic midterm win scares off casual buyers.
“I don’t want to be sitting holding thousands and thousands of dollars of Trump merchandise and absolutely no possibility of selling it,” Kligman said, according to the Irish Star.
Because of term limits and the president’s age, sellers are now shifting toward general patriotic gear like “We the People” caps. Unless another Trump relative steps into politics, Solomon warned that the entire retail niche “will fade away.”
