A Gradual Slowdown Suddenly Becomes a Wrenching Halt -
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Published on: 9/16/2001
Last Visited: 9/16/2001
Jay Stein , 56 , the chairman of Steinmart , a high-end retail chain in the south , had come to New York last week for an annual industry meeting.On Tuesday morning , he was exercising on a treadmill at an apartment his company owns , watching television , when the news broke.He quickly canceled a breakfast meeting , checked on the safety of his employees ( 30 were in New York with him ) , invited them over to comfort one another in a sort of living-room wake , and closed the stores in his chain by mid-afternoon.
Sales revenue was already growing much more slowly this year than last , he said , and the terrorist attacks would translate into a sharp decline in the short term.The question is how short is short term , he said , speculating that once the television coverage receded , many people would return to their old habits.
On Tuesday night , President Bush tried to assure people that , as far as the economy was concerned , the short term would be very short.In a brief address from the Oval Office , he declared that the American economy will be open for business..By the next morning , in most places across the country , he would be proved correct.
Outside of New York , Starbucks returned to nearly normal operations.In Oregon , the Barnes & Noble in Bend that had closed five hours early on Tuesday reopened.Around the nation , people who had left work early on Tuesday returned Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.But if business had reopened its doors , it was not exactly overrun with customers.
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Mr. Stein of Steinmart said he expects the terrorist attacks to be especially hard on sales of fashion apparel and expensive home furnishings , not the sort of purchases in keeping with a nation in mourning.It is clearly not business as normal in our stores , he said.
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