Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Silly Season in retail gets sillier every year...

Somewhere near the local Target there must be a singularity, because there are some weird time-dilation effects going on...

Mind you, we're not even out of September yet. I predict that within the next couple years, Frosty and Rudolph will be popping up amongst the Back-to-School aisles.

20 comments:

Scott J said...

I think it's a plot to erase Thanksgiving.

rickn8or said...

No Thanksgiving stuff??

BGMiller said...

Christmas flamingo?
:facepalm:


What caliber for festive flamingo?


BGM

mtyd05 said...

Same thing is going on in NC not even much Halloween stuff is out but there's Christmas stuff

lelnet said...

"I predict that within the next couple years, Frosty and Rudolph will be popping up amongst the Back-to-School aisles."

Look behind you. :)

When I was a kid (which would make the relevant event 30+ years ago) my mother was once shopping in a local party-supply store for stuff for a birthday party of mine, and wasn't able to find much of it, because it was crowded out by Christmas kit.

My birthday? September 5th.

Ken O said...

I was in the local big box sporting goods store on the 26th picking up ammo, when, over the loud speaker, White Christmas followed The Monster Mash. Seriously.

Fred said...

It just makes me think of the plot of one ofI my favorite movies.

RevolverRob said...

Thanksgiving isn't really a retail holiday. They haven't yet figured out how to capitalize on selling you turkey.

When I worked retail, every year they'd start the Christmas music sooner. First, it was the day after Thanksgiving, then two weeks before, then the day after Halloween. Now my friends say it will start on October 15th.

The wife and I were at Lowe's last weekend, we were looking at the meager supply of Halloween decorations. Meanwhile, the store elf was installing Christmas trees. She didn't look like she was much in the holiday spirit.

Charles Lee Scudder said...

Too late, back in 2002 I saw Christmas stuff right next to the 4th of July fireworks at a local Walmart.

Chewbacca said...

I can't believe they're putting up Christmas decorations and it isn't even Life Day yet.

mikee said...

Like the Laffer Curve demonstrates for taxation, there has to be a point of diminishing return for the early sale of Christmas decorations.

With me, personally, the diminishing return happened over a decade ago. I just don't go into stores that play Christmas music, from whenever it starts to after New Years, if I can avoid it at all. And when I have to enter such a falsely jolly store, I make it a point to tell every clerk, checker, and manager I can that their music is very annoying and should be stopped.

If there were a few tens of millions more who would follow my practice, this crap would stop.

Ritchie said...

Frosty and Rudy have air support? Who knew!

Eric said...

I want to see Santa riding a pumpkin pulled by turkeys.

Ted N said...

Mikee; I'll jump on that bandwagon.

I say, go ahead and put the stuff out, just please don't turn on the endless Christmas mix tape until, I dunno, 2 weeks out. That'd be awesome.

AuricTech said...

I suspect that Fred alluded to the film that inspired my question: does Tim Burton know about this display?

ASM826 said...

I gave up. We put up the tree and decorated the house this evening. We're making Grandma's sugar cookies tomorrow.

Joe said...

My local Kroger has Christmas stuff out in the "seasonal" aisle.

Don said...

It is the Nightmare Before Christmas. Was there a skeleton running around singing, "WHAT'S THIS? WHAT'S THAT? WHAT'S THIS AND THAT AND THAT?"

Greg said...

Every year it seems like the holidays come earlier. Retail is trying to earn as much profits as possible before the end of the year, especially since times got harder for everyone and they are spending less. Now you can see Halloween mixed with Christmas.

Anonymous said...

This has been going on a while.

I can remember back circa 1985 when you'd start seeing television commercials for Christmas music (recorded on vinyl or 8-track tape, of course) oh, 'long about August.