9/11--Where Were You?

[jbizz]

Tomorrow marks seven years since the terrorits attacks of 9/11. Many of you were in business then so I have 3 questions for you.

Where were you?

Did you do any fundraisers for the victims?

How do you think 9/11 has affected your business?

[Din]

i was golfing up at my cottage.

[theislandtan]

I was working. I remember standing around a TV watching with a bunch of others...

[SUNNYDAYS]

I was in Greece on my honeymoon.

[Alan @ TanToday]

Where were you? I was getting ready to leave to go to college. Being that I am close to DC, it was pretty scary to be driving down 95 South and hearing about the Pentagon getting hit. EYE OPENER. I skipped my 1st 2 classes glued to the television in our rec center like everyone else. Then they closed campus and the BWI Airport which was miles away.

Did you do any fundraisers for the victims? Donated to the Red Cross.

How do you think 9/11 has affected your business? I havent seen it personally but I know its affected everyone in some way. Expect maybe the terrorists.

[The Oasis]

Crazy that it's been 7 years.

I was in college, they had it on t.v. in the common area and we all sat & watched the second plane hit with our jaws on our laps. I had a person in my class that started at 9:30 who's Mom was in NY - she was very upset. An announcement came on over the speaker system that anyone who felt the need to leave was able to, and most of my class left.

I am opening in a few weeks, so I couldn't tell you how it has affected this business.

We ran several fund raisers in conjunction with our local Red Cross unit afterwards to benefit the victims of the tragedy.

[Tanning Queen]

I was at home getting ready to leave for the salon when I saw it all happen. I opened up and had the tv on all day. Not many people came in. One guy that did come in was real shitty and said, "I am surprised you are open. My other salon was closed. Seems dumb to me." I really couldnt believe how cold he was to it all. I had several customers that had friends and family that died there and one of my customers died in the towers where he worked.

I matched dollar for dollar any donations we collected and dontated to the Red Cross. Got $1500 total in like 2 weeks. After that, I didnt push any more cuz it seemed every place you went, people were asking for donations.

YES, it affected business. I noticed a significant change in traffic. It seemed no one was travelling so no one tanned. And people just stopped spending money on luxury items. I have friends that owned restaurants and they said no one was coming in all of a sudden. I think everyone started focusing on their family and friends and started doing more at home, together.

[Ezliving_Jim]

I was in a court hearing in Rockville, MD, 20 miles from the Pentagon.

At that time I was a district manager controlling most of cellular phone stores for one cellular carrier's largest agent in MD, VA and DC. When I walked outside the courthouse after the hearing with business associates, I got a call from one of my store managers about the WTC first tower getting hit. My RM and I ran to a local Quiznos that had a TV and watched the second tower get hit. By then, cellular nets were crashing in DC.

Phones were crashed. We argued by Blackberry with our HQ about closing our stores. HQ said to stay open.

When the Pentagon got hit we messaged HQ that we were closing our stores and sending our people home. Pure insubordination on our part. We used text messaging to close the stores because phones were crashed.

Sidebar.

Later on, HQ started closing stores in other markets because the malls they were in were closing.

Days later, HQ directed my RM to order me to dock my salaried managers a days pay for closing on 9/11. I refused. My RM refused to change my payroll submission. Major fight with HQ over this. More insubordination on my part and on the part of my RM (other lame DMs docked their managers the days pay).

Soon after that I quit, telling my RM to get out before HQ's house of cards came down on him. I predicted the imminent demise of the whole company to the V.P. at HQ.

A couple weeks later my RM quit and soon after that the other DM quit (lots of reasons why). All Mid-Atlantic management was history and, while HQ tried to recover, store managers were walking and stores started falling like dominoes.

In a few months, the cellular carrier pulled HQ's agent contract in this market and they were toast.

[RobertK]

Living in lower Manhattan. 11th Street and Broadway.

Spent three days at ground zero. Donated $5,000 to the FDNY Widows and Children fund.

[Mojave Tan]

Driving to work for Apple. Felt like you were going to be the next target. Not sure if I should turn around or keep going.
It was devastating.
However, they kept the center open and management helped.
The phones still rang and customers spent money.

[bronzecafe]

Not trying to be funny at all but this is the truth. I think me and a "friend" of mine were the last people on earth to hear about 9/11 and the sad part is I was a Staff Sergeant in the Marines at the time. Me and her had "hung out" until like 4am the night before without her boyfriend knowing and we woke up to the phone ringing that morning. We just picked up where we left off after turning our cellphones off and we never turned on the tv. Ahhhhh to be 25 years old again!!!! Well like 5 hours later I left her house and turned my phone on to find the 35 messages I had. We still call each other every 9/11.

[bronzecafe]

On the serious side I did help with a lot of fundraisers. And then I donated a year of my life trying not to get any extra holes in my body over in Afganistan.

[sunNyoga]

I bought my beds that day, and opened one month later.

[The Oasis]

bronzecafe - I've been lurking (posted a couple of times) - and wasn't sure what gender you were until the Ron Jeremy avitar!

You rock!!!!!!! I have many friends in the armed forces. Our country is forever in debt to the service men & women that have sacrificed everything for us to be able to sit here & blog.

Let's all remember all that have done this... not only 9/11... years past also.

Thank you!

[Brian Oshman]

I was on my way to a friends house to pick up some parts. We were talking on the phone and he said that the World Trade Towers had been hit by a plane. I was a few blocks away and when I got to his house we were just watching the TV and at first thought it was just a freak accident then saw live the second plane strike the second tower and knew right at that moment that there was more then meets the eye.

Called and canceled my jobs for the day and discussed what we just had seen. My wife had went and grabbed the kids from school and took them home. I went home soon after that and watched the TV for most of the afternoon in utter shock. It was a somber day.

Soon after that since I travel on the roads a lot I noticed major patriotism. Everyone had adorned flags on their cars (if you could find them in the stores as most sold out immediately) and drove the speed limit and were very courteous to other motorists but that soon changed and everyone was back to the fuque you attitude.

I had flags on my truck and went into a salon probably a couple days after the incident and I was inside for maybe one and a half minutes and went back outside to get my tools and someone in that time had went and snapped off the flags. So much for patriotism and brotherhood and honor banding together for mankind in a wake of a disaster.

9/11 hasn't killed business, Government killed business. So much for remembering. Most have forgotten about the incident and how it really made them feel. They have once again become complacent, what a shame.

[TonyG]

I had flags on my truck and went into a salon probably a couple days after the incident and I was inside for maybe one and a half minutes and went back outside to get my tools and someone in that time had went and snapped off the flags.

Holy crap, really??? Was that in NJ? I won't say anything politically incorrect, but there are quite a few of 'those people' in certain parts of New Jersey.

[JeffK]

DOING:

I was watching CNN even before the first plane hit.. saw the second hit live, as did millions of others..

I was scheduled to fly that day from Cincinnati to Montreal.. obviously that didn't happen..

FUNDRAISER:

I didn't do a personal fundraiser.. I gave to the Red Cross 9/11 fund..

AFFECT ON BUSINESS:

I wasn't in the tanning business at that time..

[JeffK]

Originally Posted by bronzecafe

On the serious side I did help with a lot of fundraisers. And then I donated a year of my life trying not to get any extra holes in my body over in Afganistan.

Thank you.

[Brian Oshman]

Originally Posted by TonyG

Holy crap, really??? Was that in NJ? I won't say anything politically incorrect, but there are quite a few of 'those people' in certain parts of New Jersey.

Yup, Woodbridge/Edison, NJ. Don't worry about political correctness, we should have turned that desert into glass 20 years ago.

[Beach Bum]

On the way to work that day I was listening to the Man Cow show on the radio. I thought they were scamming that a attack had occur. Only when I arrived at my office (I am a partner in an engineering consulting firm) and everyone was surrounding the TV did I realize it was for real. I will never forgot how sick I felt. The only other time I felt that horrible was when my father passed away.

The only positive memory I have was attending a college football game a week or so later. There was about 100k people in attendence. And hearing everyone shout together for over 10 minutes "U-S-A, U-S-A" brought chills to my spine. It was as if everyone was united.