NEW YORK – With the World Trade Center gone, it seems people are anxious –
almost desperate – to buy anything to help them remember.
One result: A run on the city's many souvenir stands for knickknacks
reflecting the twin towers, from postcards to pewter paperweights, snow globes
to refrigerator magnets.
"Just anything related to the World Trade Center. Mostly postcards," said
Judy Kow, a manager at the Spirit of Broadway.
Twin tower items haven't always been so popular – far from it.
"It used to be one of our lower selling items," Ms. Kow said. "Everybody took
it for granted."
Now, she said, people seem to want to reach out for the fallen buildings, the
symbol of New York's wealth and financial might.
"Is anyone not scathed from this whole thing?" she asked. "I don't know."
Some buyers, however, may be more entrepreneurial than sentimental. Some
souvenir store workers said there have been bulk purchases by other merchants
who plan big markups.
"A lot of people try to make the price higher, but we don't," said Steve
Carlos of the New York Gift Gallery, also on Broadway.
He added that most of the activity seemed to be a sincere effort to
memorialize New York City as it was.
"They feel they have lost something," Mr. Carlos said. "The skyline is
missing something."
Down at The Phantom of Broadway, Gwen Pieters said she bought four postcards
featuring the World Trade Center as a matter of posterity.
"I want to be able to have a piece of history," Ms. Pieters said. "I want to
be able to show them to my children and my grandchildren."
After ringing up the sale, store manager Solaimaan Mohammed said it's just as
well these items are being sold. His inventory is going to have to change.
"We're going to have to order new stuff," he said.