Apparently, Baltimore merchants are angry because the pop just didn’t sell like he was supposed to when he camto Charm City for a mass the other week. ” If it was 350,000, none of them came to the harbor,” restaurateur Yogi Kumar told the Washington Post. “We lost a lot of money and a lot of food.” Leave it to a marketing expert to figure out what went wrong. Joan Davidson, identified as “the marketing and sales manager for the company that manages the stores housed in two pavilions along the Inner Harbor,” suggested that sales were low because “a majority of people had their energies focused on the holy father.”
So that’s what led to the trouble — people were too busy praying and heeding the pope’s words to allow consumerism to dominate their lives. In July, the Post pointed out, Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening “applauded the pope’s impending visit, saying state analysts projected a $ 19.1 million revenue windfall.” The next time the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association decides to get excited about a dignitary coming to that fair city, it’ll be for someone they can trust to keep the crowd’s priorities straight – – Madonna, maybe, or even O.J.
