After Irene, buyer’s remorse hits

Associated Press

NEW YORK

People along the East Coast gave thanks when the storm passed by Sunday and inflicted relatively little harm. But by Monday morning, they were complaining.

Some were annoyed that they’d braved long lines to buy batteries and canned goods that they didn’t end up needing.

Others were in stores demanding refunds on the extra flashlights, tarps and even junk food they’d snapped up.

Many were planning to host post-hurricane parties to get rid of all the extra food they bought, or were preparing to sell their unwanted stuff on eBay.

Hurricane Irene, which barreled through the Carolinas and the Eastern Seaboard, has exposed the new thriftiness Americans have adopted during the economic downturn.

In previous years, people might have just stuffed the extra emergency supplies into their cupboards.

But stagnant wages, high unemployment and a volatile stock market have turned spenders into penny pinchers. And many people are having buyer’s remorse.

David McDuff stood in the returns line at a Home Depot in Falls Church, Va., on Monday, waiting to get his money back for the $500 gas-powered generator he’d bought in case he lost power over the weekend.

In years past, McDuff said, he might have been tempted to keep the generator. But now? “I just feel like I don’t need it,” said McDuff, 55, a contractor. “I’ll buy it again if the need arises.”

So far, Hurricane Irene gave an unexpected windfall to home-improvement chains and grocers and a blow to department and clothing stores.

Stores aren’t eager to give back those sales, but they also don’t want to alienate their shoppers by being difficult to deal with.

At a Home Depot in Brooklyn on Monday, a handwritten sign warned there would be “NO Returns” on sump pumps, opened batteries or flashlights.

Both Home Depot and rival Lowe’s say on their websites that customers can return most items within 90 days of purchase. But Karen Cobb, a spokeswoman for Lowe’s, said the store hadn’t seen a rash of returns Monday.

“There are people who still don’t have power,” Cobb said, “and we also know that hurricane season is not over yet, and customers in the Northeast know full and well that there are snowstorms coming.”

Emergency-preparedness professionals agree that people should hold onto their supplies.

“At the next storm, rather than trying to beat the crush of people running out to get those things, you can sit back and be safe and comfortable with your family, knowing you already have those things on hand,” said Heather Paul, a spokeswoman for State Farm Insurance.

But some people just don’t see the need in keeping things they don’t plan to use right away.

Alexis Beene of Harlem is wondering what to do with the $150 worth of food and other items she bought to prepare for her “Hurricane Slumber Party” on Saturday night.

She wanted her 12 guests to be prepared for every scenario, so she bought peanut butter, four big bottles of wine, a 24-pack of 1-liter water bottles, a 36-variety pack of crackers and 48 double-A batteries. Irene — and the party — has come and gone. But most of the items are still taking up space in Beene’s home.

“I guess we’ll be eating a lot of snacks and wine every day,” said Beene, a 28-year-old research analyst.

Beene thinks most of her purchases were prudent, though she acknowledges the batteries may have been a stretch since she doesn’t “even have anything that’s battery-operated” besides one flashlight.

Toyya Meyers was glad she’d stocked up on bottled water, but she was annoyed that she had such a hard time finding batteries during Friday’s mad shopping scramble.

She ended up paying $3 each for “D” batteries for an electric lantern, which she didn’t need because her electricity never went out.

While some people tried to figure out what to do with all the extra stuff, many people were focused more on what they did not want to do with it.

Some joked that Irene was just a conspiracy to boost grocery store sales.

They lamented the detrimental effects that buying so many snacks would have on their waistlines.

Carol Schneider, spokeswoman for the Food Bank for New York City, was pleasantly surprised by a posting on the New York blog Gothamist urging people to donate their “surplus ‘freak-out food’” to the food bank.