No doubt flashlight batteries were a hot commodity in NYC on 14th August, but now the marketers want us to by other stuff just in case it happens again. For example, a google on "blackout" shows us ads for sites like PhotonLight.Com which sells the incredibly tiny and cheap keychain lights for $9.95 and warns everyone to "be prepared". You can get almost the same keychain at eBay for like less than 2 bucks. The same search would tell u to buy the shake-and-use flashlights from this site. That's probably how they sold al the ductape and plastic cover sheets after lat year's gas attack scare.

I remember that a couple of weeks after 9/11 they started T-shirts illustrating the two towers and the U.S. flag and other patriotic stuff. Well, this one wasn't a tragedy at all, but still, the most advertised items seem to be the "I survived the blackout of 2003" T-Shirts. One google ad directs you to NYCwebstore.com selling the T-shirts for $20.00 and calling them the "offical blackout T-Shirts". I'm not very sure about the official part... but I found the same ones at the local mall for $3 today. Bastards.

Capitalism is sure a bliss.