NEW YORK (AP) - 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 Virginia 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 for future need. "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 was trying to give them away," she said. "I was telling everyone, 'Before you leave, please take a candle.'"
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 bank.
Schneider said the Food Bank, which supplies soup kitchens and other charities throughout the city, would take whatever people had left over, even if it was just a couple of cans of tuna fish or boxes of cereal. As of Monday evening, the Food Bank had seen no Irene-induced surge of donations, but Schneider was hopeful they would come after people sorted out more immediate problems like flooded basements.
"Whatever is extra and they're not going to use - everything helps," she said. "Especially in times like these."
AP staffers Ellen Gibson and Anne D'Innocenzio in New York and Derek Kravitz Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.