From Whole Foods To Sex Shops In Times Square: What Hurricane Irene Did To Business In New York City


Times Square Before Hurricane Irene

This nearly-last weekend of summer is usually a big one for New York City's $31 billion tourism industry

But Hurricane Irene has changed all that. 

Now that nearly 400,000 New Yorkers have been asked to evacuate, and the rest stayed inside as the transportation system ground to a halt, the landscape looks quite different. 

We took a look at what businesses decided to stay open, which ones offered employees car services, and what New Yorkers prioritize before disaster strikes. 

Any store that sold beer, wine or liquor profited (and likely stayed open for a while) this weekend

In fact, in 2004, Walmart found that beer was its #1 pre-hurricane sales item. 

NPR reported on this trend yesterday: 

Frankly Wines, a small shop just outside the evacuation zone, was doing a pretty brisk business today. Owner Christy Frank lives around the corner. Late August is normally a slow time, she says, but Irene has been great for business.

"We've been calling it the 'hurricane stimulus package,'" Frank said. "It's definitely been good for business. I have a number of other friends who own wine stores elsewhere in the city, and after yesterday, we were all just beat. It was like the day before Thanksgiving, or New Year's Eve."

Equinox stayed open until 8 p.m. Saturday (depending upon location) and arranged for its employees to get home via car service

The Brooklyn Heights club was busier than usual at 11 a.m., which is interesting because the gym is located just a few blocks away from a mandatory evacuation zone. We assume anyone who had time to work out had already stocked up on "D" batteries and beer. 

Trader Joe's opened early (6 a.m.) and closed early (10 a.m.)

Around 8 a.m., the Brooklyn location was only moderately busy, and was also fully stocked (it even had several cases of water). 

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/K8Usub2hv8s/hurricane-irene-retail-sales-2011-8

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