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Good Business Or Bad Taste?

Updated: Wednesday, October 31 2012, 07:26 PM CDT

At least 55 Americans were killed when Sandy barreled through the East Coast-- leaving more than 8 million without power and forcing millions more to hunker down until the super storm passed. Within hours of evacuation notices Monday, several retailers began running "hurricane promotions" -- hoping to capitalize on folks stuck at home. 

American Apparel offered a “Sandy Sale” to customers who reside in states that were affected by the hurricane, including Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland. “In case you’re bored during the storm, 20 percent off everything for the next 36 hours,” the ad read.

Gap's approach was less obvious. They tweeted: "All impacted by #Sandy, stay safe! We'll be doing lots of Gap.com shopping today. How about you?" Their tweet included a check-in at "Frankenstorm Apocalypse".

Gap later had to apologize, posting: "Our check-in and tweet earlier were only meant to remind all to keep safe and indoors."

The response on Twitter was immediate and visceral -

@jontando tweeted: "@Gap Try taking a break from being a shill for a couple of days instead of trying to tie in a life-threatening storm warning to your ads?"

@DawnElisabeth16 tweeted: "@AmericanApparel If we can find individual names of people this storm has KILLED do those qualify as coupon codes too? #SandySale"

Not everyone was critical though –

‏@LisaHoffmann tweeted: "Wondering how many people bashing @AmericanApparel for #SandySale ordered something using the code. Many, I'd guess."

@o2dazone tweeted: "The only thing I'm mad at @AmericanApparel about is the Free Shipping isn't applied to the original total #SANDYSALE"

We checked the hashtag #SandySale on Twitter and found national companies weren't the only ones offering discounts due to the Superstorm.

A store owner in Washington, D.C. @shopnanadc tweeted: "We are OPEN and taking 15% off all purchases today! Thanks for shopping local during the hurricane! #sandysale"

A clothing store in New York @singer22 tweeted: "Have Cabin Fever from #sandy? Take it out on your credit card with @singer22 #sandysale 20% off with code "sandy"."

What do you think-- is this just good business or bad taste?Good Business Or Bad Taste?