Visitors to New York City in particular love to shop its glamorous, high-profile retail stores. It’s no surprise, then, that retailing was one of the sectors hardest hit in NYC by the events of September 11, 2001.
Now 11 years removed from the incident, retailers are more prepared to react as they settle into their new-normal of doing business. “The events from September 11 did not impact retailing over the long haul,” Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner at RSR, told Retail TouchPoints. “Obviously it had a serious immediate impact, as people were a) traumatized, b) further impacted by a deepening recession and c) quite paranoid.”
President Bush’s recommendation that “the best thing people could do in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 was ‘to go shopping’ was not as flip or bizarre at it sounded,” explained Rosenblum. “The point was to show terrorists that they did not impact our way of life or our economy.”
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While today retailers and consumers are more vigilant and prepared to deal with uncontrollable set-backs, “it’s not enough to just sit back and tell ourselves that we’ve done a good job…that we’re ready for anything,” noted Joe LaRocca, Senior Asset Protection Advisor at NRF in a June 2011 article. “As an industry, we need to strive constantly to do more and be even better prepared [for whatever arises].”
