Fred Forcellati From Hoboken New Jersey
What did you buy?
A book. The Stories They Tell: Artifacts from the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
Do you remember where you were when it happened?
I remember the day it happened everyone remembers. It was an awesome New York day, blue skies. My apartment had a view of the Twin Towers, so I could see out of the window what was happening. It was an unbelievably gorgeous day, and as the day wore on it just got so quiet. And later, I remember seeing lower Manhattan, almost totally in darkness. Nothing but the glow from the fires.
What do you think of the memorial?
I think the footprint pools are really amazing. I think they’ve done a really good job. And the museum is well done, too.
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Many visitors to the 9/11 museum couldnt resist the lure of the gift shop shelling out money Wednesday for T-shirts, trinkets and books about the tragic day.
British tourist Keith Roach, 55, bought a $5 lanyard that said 9/11 Memorial to hold his work ID.
Were going to Orlando. I was going to buy one at Disney, but this made more sense, he said.
He and his wife, Della, 52, also picked up books: 9/11 Ordinary People: Extraordinary Heroes, for $18.99, and From the Inside Out: Harrowing Escapes from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, for $19.95, plus a $25 bracelet with an American flag.
East Village resident Sean Starks, 24, purchased a couple of $22 T-shirts with images of the Twin Towers and the words, In darkness we shine brightest, as well as a 9/11 Memorial mug for $10.95 and six 9/11 pencils for $4.95.
I was trying to find things that have a connection to 9/11, rather than just earrings and things that have no connection, he said.
But other visitors said the idea of selling knickknacks on hallowed ground made them sick.
As rotten and heartless as it may seem, its always about money, said James Kristan, 57, of Kentwood, Mich., who made a point of not buying anything.
Educational books and T-shirts and posters that say, Never forget 9/11 are OK, but the dog vests and the cheap earrings need to go.
Rain Dubilewski, 24, an Upper West Side model, said he was honored to visit the museum but felt the store cheapened the experience.
/11 Memorial Museum Pulls Platter From Gift Shop
The National September 11 Memorial Museum store is no longer displaying a ceramic platter shaped like the USA, with hearts marking where the four hijacked planes struck.
In response to criticism about certain items sold at the gift shop, the museum said it will get more input from 9/11 family members who sit on the museum foundation board to help vet the merchandise, reports TheWall Street Journal.
Since it opened May 21, the museum has taken heat for selling souvenirs like hoodies with the image of the Twin Towers, stuffed animal search dogs and jewelry.
Some people have also criticized the museum for its decision to have a gift shop in the location where 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 attack.
Joe Daniels, president of the memorial foundation, told the Journal that merchandise will be reviewed inside the store to see the items in context.
“The space matters,” Daniels told the Journal. “This is a good reminder that as much ‘success’ as we’ve had we have to remember that the sensitivity around 9/11 is so high.”
USA TODAY Network has requested comment from the 9/11 Museum.
Gothamist first pointed out the platter, which it called a cheese plate. The platter has stars over the locations of the 9/11 attacks at New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa.
The Journal reports the item was no longer on display as of Tuesday.
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Are The 9/11 Museum’s Commemorative Toys And Hoodies A Step Too Far
There is a gift shop at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, which opens this week in New York. Should that be surprising? It is a museum, after all, a place that will no doubt be visited by many tourists who will want to take home souvenirs. The exhibition also needs their money, on top of what it receives in donations and admission fees, in order to meet the $63m annual cost of staying open. Even on a project of such sensitivity, this must have seemed like common sense at the planning stage.
Some of the early visitors, however, who come from among those with a personal connection to 9/11, do not see it that way. “I think it’s a money-making venture to support inflated salaries,” Diane Horning told the New York Post, “and they’re willing to do it over my son’s dead body.” In this case, those words are almost literally true. The museum is built underground beside a “remains repository” containing roughly 8,000 unidentified body parts, quite possibly including Horning’s son Matthew, whose remains were never found.
Here are four more museums with a sensitive line in souvenirs:
Nicholas And Sandra Ouwehand From Rotterdam
What did you buy?
A fridge magnet.
What does this place mean to you?
Nicholas: What happened was already immense but when you walk around here, it gets even more real.
What did you get from the gift shop?
Sandra: We got a magnet for our travel wall. We have a wall where we put magnets from everywhere we go. It’s of the last pole that was standing at Ground Zero, with all the people’s messages on it. I found that very moving.
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/11 Memorial Museum Gift Shop Draws The Ire Of Many: ‘it’s A Disgrace’
May 19, 2014 / 6:09 PM / CBS New York
NEW YORK There is a debate brewing over whether it’s appropriate for the 9/11 museum gift shop to sell souvenirs at the exact spot where thousands of people died.
As CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reported on Monday, visitors walked out of the ground zero museum with shopping bags holding souvenir purchases from the gift shop. They could be anything from a stuffed dog to police and firefighter charms by Pandora to a scarf with an imprint of the World Trade Center before the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.
GALLERY:9/11 Museum Dedication
“It’s a disgrace. The selling of trinkets is a disgrace,” said Ted Stankewicz, a retired firefighter from Ladder 119. “This is a place to honor people. Civilians passed away. Civil servants passed away. This is kind of sacred ground. This is not a money-maker. Shame on them.”
“It is a little disrespectful to be selling scarves and jewelry. It’s not what this is about, you know? It should be run like the national monuments around the country, by the federal government. But until that happens, unfortunately, we’re going to be faced with this,” added another firefighter, who chose to remain anonymous.
Retired firefighter Ron Parker wasn’t nearly as critical.
“It’s not a gift shop on a grave site. It’s terrible to depict it that way. It’s a bookstore with a great many heroes. There’s a great many stories about a great many heroes in that bookstore,” Parker said.
The museum opens to the public on Wednesday.
New York’s 9/11 Museum Pulls Controversial Item From Gift Shop
1 Min Read
NEW YORK – The National September 11 Memorial Museum gift shop has pulled an item that provoked cries of protest for its insensitivity: a U.S. shaped ceramic cheese platter marking the three spots where the hijacked airplanes went down, it said on Thursday.
The commemorative tray that is meant for display, not serving, has been removed, a spokesperson for the museum said in an email.
The new museum in lower Manhattan won mostly positive reviews from local media and those with personal ties to the attacks alike when it opened earlier this month, after years of delays and controversy.
But the museums gift shop, which sells items such as fire department apparel and rescue vests for dogs, has come under criticism from some family members of those who died in the attacks as well as the first responders who worked in the rubble of the fallen twin towers.
Reporting By Edith Honan: editing by Gunna Dickson
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Silk Scarf Lunchtime On The Wtc Plaza
Description: “This scarf features Paula Barr’s panoramic photograph, entitled ‘Lunchtime on the WTC Plaza,’ of downtown workers and visitors gathering on the World Trade Center’s plaza, which sometimes served as a public space for concerts and other outdoor programs. The vast scale of the Twin Towers, the reflective surfaces and striking gothic arches created by the steel tridents inspired photographers to depict them from every perspective.”
/11 Museum Gift Shop: Hoodies And Anger
At the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which opened to the public on Wednesday, visitors can view the wreckage of a New York Fire Department engine, a steel beam from one of the World Trade Center towers, and photographs of those who died in the attacks.
When they’re done, they can wander through the museum’s gift shop and buy 9/11 coffee mugs and t-shirts, toy fire engines, a “darkness hoodie” emblazoned with the outline of the Twin Towers, a silk scarf with the New York skyline and buttons featuring pictures of the “dogs of 9/11”.
“To me, it’s the crassest, most insensitive thing to have a commercial enterprise at the place where my son died,” Diane Horning, whose son worked in the World Trade Center, told the New York Post. She notes that the memorial features a room where the unidentified remains of victims of the attack are stored.
“Here is essentially our tomb of the unknown,” she said. “To sell baubles I find quite shocking and repugnant.”
Jim Riches, father of a firefighter who died on 9/11, also feels offended. “Basically, they’re making money off of my son’s dead body,”he told CNN. “I think that’s disgusting.”
The juxtaposition of the solemn and the commercial has prompted a vigorous debate in the media about the gift shop’s decorum.
“What, no World Trade Center shot glasses or firefighter teddy bears?”asks Townhall’s Cortney O’Brien. “How can this museum stand to turn Americans’ pain into profit?”
He continues:
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/11 Museum Opens To Outrage Over Gift Shop Cocktail Reception
The National September 11 Memorial Museum opened this week to outrage among some victims’ families over a gift shop at the site and a black-tie reception held close to the unidentified remains of people killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
And more controversy has erupted with news that a restaurant is opening soon inside the museum offering an array of local, seasonal fare in a relaxing and comfortable environment, according to the museum guide.
Its the crassest, most insensitive thing to have a commercial enterprise at the place where my son died, Diane Horning told the New York Post. She and husband Kurt never recovered the remains of their son Matthew, 26, a database administrator at the Twin Towers.
The gift shop is selling fire and police T-shirts and caps, earrings molded from trees that survived the destruction, United We Stand blankets and even FDNY vests for dogs.
But spokesman Anthony Guido said the shop is essential to keep the museum going, since it receives no federal or state funds and is financed entirely by private donations. Between 60 and 70 percent of the museum’s annual operating cost of about $60 million will come from revenue generated from the gift shop and the museum’s admission fee, which is $24 for an adult, he told NBCNews.com.
Nikki Majewski And Matt Maydo From Sydney
What did you buy?
A fridge magnet three-pack featuring art from The Dogs of 9/11.
Do you remember where you were when it happened?
Nikki: I was about 12 in my first year of high school. I remember walking into the living room and seeing it on the news. I thought it was a film at first.
Matt: I was at home with my parents. It was late in Australia when the attacks happened. It was late. I stayed up.
What do you think of the memorial?
Matt: It’s stunning. Amazing. A real tribute to those who lost their lives.
Nikki: I think it puts it a lot in context, too. There so many people’s stories here.
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/11 Museum Gift Shop And Cafe: Appropriate Or Insulting To Victims
May 21, 2014 / 8:47 PM / CBS New York
NEW YORK — Is it appropriate to have a gift shop, cafe and a black-tie affair at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The museum, which opened to the public Wednesday, has been the subject of much criticism since last week’s dedication. Some have been angered by the presence of the museum’s gift shop, which sells coffee mugs, T-shirts and tote bags a formal event at the museum last week attended by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and plans to open a cafe at the site where nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 terrorist attack — some of whom’s unidentified remains are housed at the museum.
As WCBS 880’s Monica Miller reported, some family members of victims and survivors say it’s crass commercialism that has no place on such hallowed ground.
The 9/11 Museum Heard Your Gift
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After families of victims and the general public pounced on news that New Yorks newly minted 9/11 Museum had a gift shop that carried commemorative items, including cheese plates and plush toy dogs, the folks in charge say theyve heard the complaints loud and clear, and theyre doing something about it.
Joe Daniels, the president of the memorial foundation, told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that 9/11 victims families that sit on the foundations board will be asked to offer more input into gift-shop merchandising.
The cheese plate, which was in the shape of the United States and dotted the location of the attacks with tiny hearts was no longer available in the store on Tuesday. Other items that drew the ire of guests and the media included a darkness hoodie and survivor tree earrings.
Once the public starts coming in, you learn so much, Daniels told the Journal. We in no way presume to get everything right. We will accept that criticism, absolutely.
In a gripping piece titled The Worst Day of My Life Is Now New Yorks Hottest Tourist Attraction, Buzzfeed editor Steve Kandell recounts his uncomfortable families-only tour of the museum. Kandell, who lost his sister during the attack, found the gift store to be among the least exploitive parts of the entire museum:
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/11 Museum Gift Shop Cafe: Appropriate Or Insulting To Victims
Crystal Bailey, who visited the museum Wednesday, said she’s conflicted and considered the same question during a recent trip to Memphis, where she toured the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
“That’s a civil rights museum with Martin Luther King,” she said. “They turned that hotel where he was murdered into the same kind of museum.”
Elaine, who lost friends on 9/11, said she, too, understands why some are upset.
“No, I do not believe that there should have been a black-tie event,” she said.
“It’s not even about a gift,” she said. “It’s about the moment.”
Museum officials say revenue is needed to pay for operating costs, which amounts to about $65 million a year.
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First published on May 21, 2014 / 8:47 PM
Do You Think There Should Be A Gift Shop At 9/11 Memorial
In addition to the moving artifacts and exhibits, the new 9/11 Memorial Museum, which is opening to the public on Wednesday at Ground Zero in New York, also has a gift shop, and that’s not sitting well with some family members, according to the New York Post.
Victims’ family members and friends, first responders and survivors have been able to tour the museum since the dedication ceremony last week, and that included seeing the gift shop. Diane Horning, whose 26-year-old son was killed in the attacks, told the Post, “To me, it’s the crassest, most insensitive thing to have a commercial enterprise at the place where my son died.” Referring to the fact that thousands of unidentified body parts are in a “remains repository” at the museum, Horning, who also objects to the cafe, said, “Here is essentially our tomb of the unknown. To sell baubles I find quite shocking and repugnant. I think it’s a money-making venture to support inflated salaries, and they’re willing to do it over my son’s dead body.”
According to the newspaper, a notice at the gift shop and online where items are sold says, “All net proceeds from our sales are dedicated to developing and sustaining” the museum. Some of the items on sale, as described the Post, include: FDNY, NYPD and Port Authority Police T-shirts and caps earrings molded from leaves and blossoms of the “Survivor Tree,” police and firefighters jewelry charms and “United We Stand” merchandise.
Here’s a link to the museum’s on-line store.
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/11 Museum Gift Shop Pulls Tacky Commemorative Cheese Plate
The National 9/11 Memorial Museum has stopped selling a cheese plate amid mounting criticism.
The platter — designed for mundane cheese-serving purposes — is in the shape of a map of the continental United States. Three hearts mark the spots where, nearly 13 years ago, terrorists crashed hijacked planes full of passengers into New Yorks Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Anthony Guido, a spokesman for the museum, told The Huffington Post on Thursday morning that the item had already been removed from shelves.
Family members on the program committee have always been vetting museum store items, Guido said by phone.
Another spokeswoman at the museum could not immediately respond to questions about how much the cheese plate cost and when, exactly, the item was pulled.
While anger over the propriety of some of the 9/11-themed kitsch has been targeted at the platter in recent weeks, the museum has caught flak for even having a gift shop.
In response, Joe Daniels, the president of the memorial foundation, told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the museum would invite more people to vet gift shop items before they go on sale.
“Once the public starts coming in, you learn so much,” Mr. Daniels said. “We in no way presume to get everything right. We will accept that criticism, absolutely.”
Mugs, plush search-and-rescue dogs and T-shirts fill the store.
Not everyone is peeved by it.
