“I’ve received many, many notes regarding the Reuters report about the challenges at Louis Vuitton’s Alvarado, Texas, production facility,” writes Puck’s Lauren Sherman about one of LV’s reportedly worst-performing factories. “The problem is not that Louis Vuitton and LVMH have failed to build a robust business in Alvarado, but rather that they hyped the opening of the factory for P.R. purposes.”⁠ ⁠ In 2019, LVMH chairman and C.E.O. Bernard Arnault, then-Louis Vuitton C.E.O. Michael Burke, and Alexandre Arnault all showed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony with then-President Trump, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. ⁠ ⁠ “There are definitely people in Arnault’s inner circle who thought the trip was a bad idea,” Lauren continues. “Perhaps it was worth it to appease Trump, but it just made people aware that the factory existed in the first place. The two (and I believe, at one time, three) facilities in California have been operating for decades without anyone noticing. Talk about quiet ...