A couple of political story displays are in the news. In Boston, a group opposed to gay marriage has persuaded Macy's to remove "Gay Pride" mannequins from its windows, while in San Francisco, a Marc Jacobs' boutique window displayed "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!" in 7 to 8 feet tall letters. The Jacobs' window was actually ordered up by the company visual merchandising department.

These are two examples of a very bad idea. Retail and politics should never mix. The San Francisco store says that "no one" has complained about their display. Their thought must be that everyone in San Francisco is a raging liberal and therefore it's okay to do this. First, not everyone in San Francisco is liberal. Really. In 2004, 15.3% of voters in San Francisco county opted for Bush (note: excel file). Second, even if everyone in San Francisco hated Bush or even just all Marc Jacobs' customers hated him it's still a bad idea.

I don't understand why a retailer would actively choose to alienate any customer based on their ideology. And furthermore, why do retailers need to express their own ideology in the first place? Is Marc Jacobs about politics or is it about style? Does Macy's want to advertise themselves as a gay-friendly retailer or do they want to simply be a purveyor of fine merchandise? Most marketers realize you can really only get one message out to your customers at a time. That these retailers want that message to be political instead of promotional boggles my mind.

What it all comes down to is that too many retailers aren't customer-centric. They think that by tapping into the perceived ideology and lifestyle of their customers that they are being customer-centric, but they're not. Their customers don't care about their politics, they care about their products and prices. These retailers are using up valuable areas in the store where they could communicate the latest styles and promotions to their customers and instead using them to talk about themselves. How is that customer-friendly? If I'm walking down the street, is it more beneficial to me to see what kinds of stuff the store has and how much it costs or is it better for me to see whether the store is run by liberal or conservative people? I think it's clearly the former.

Stores that make a big deal about supporting politics of any stripe are doing so because those issues are important to them, not their customers. They're like a bore at a party that only wants to talk about themselves. Customers don't care. Really. Remember that whole Buy Blue thing that was supposed to direct people to "progressive" companies? You don't? Exactly.

It's hard enough to decide what shoes to buy, why do retailers want to make it harder for me. Sometimes a girl just wants shoes. She wants cute shoes, not liberal or conservative shoes.