Hurricane Sandy passed by this way a few days ago. We won't soon forget her, even those of us she let off easy. What are a few days or a week without electricity and heat when you stop to consider the losses that others suffered?
Yesterday was a turnaround day in some respects for my family. The refrigerator was emptied of its contents. Our children heard from friends who had heat and electric — a chance to get out to exchange storm stories and get warm for a few hours. A few even made it out to retail stores. Purchases at the food store were limited to what was needed for the next meal. One of the resident teens went store-hopping, but that was more for something to do than it was searching for something to buy.
It's with this as a backdrop that I find myself divided between two camps on American Apparel's decision to run a storm sale in nine states affected by Sandy. The first are those upset that anyone would callously profit, even indirectly, from the misfortune of others.
The second are those either numbed by the experience who believe there are more important issues than a retailer's sale to worry about or others who think any step that gets people thinking about returning to normal life is a positive. The discussion on the morning sports radio station was whether it was appropriate to run the New York Marathon and other sporting events in the metro area this weekend.
As you would expect, American Apparel CEO Dov Charney stood by his company's decision to run the sale with the appropriate response that it was doing its part to help those affected by the storm to get back to normal.
As numerous reports covering the story pointed out, American Apparel was not alone in running Sandy-connected sales. The difference between those stories and American Apparel appears to be Mr. Charney's reaction to criticism leveled at his company.
"I don't think the average person was offended," Mr. Charney told Bloomberg Businessweek. "There were 25 bloggers who blew up. That's their right. The media is also interested in getting a rise out of readers. You have to look at your motivation in covering this, too. But it's not a big deal. We don't think it was offensive. We're sorry if others thought it was."