Too Soon?

An area family set up their Christmas lights this weekend on their house and several trees. There are also animated reindeer, snowmen and a Santa Claus which will have to be moved weekly until the grass stops growing. It wasn't done to get an early start. Everything is turned on at night.

I'm kinda upset that the supermarkets have their Halloween products out...

Yeah, WAY too soon.

I would vote both that its way too soon/super annoying and its also none of my business.... unless you're in an HOA.

I agree that both would have been good, but I voted way too early......yes, I am in an HOA. I think we can't have our lights up before Thanksgiving and they have to be down by Feb 1. Both I think are very reasonable "deadlines".

Way too soon, it cheapens the holiday.

I especially can't stand commercial decor. As DJ pointed out, Halloween's already showing. Really? I'm enjoying the last warm days of summer full of the scent of ripening grapes, but every storefront is screaming "Wee! Late fall! Wee!" as if they want to rush into it. By the time we get there, when I'm enjoying trout season and Halloween, they'll be "HEY!!! Thanksgiving sucka!!". Try to enjoy Thanksgiving and deer season, then it's "WHAT'RE YOU DOING??!! IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!".

Before I know it it'll be February and I'll just want to kill myself.

If I'm old enough to be a customer, I'm old enough to know WHEN holidays are and WHERE to find holiday goods. Just stop it already.

Um, its still summer, Halloween is 6 weeks away
and you see Xmas lights already? Thats scary..

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I'm kinda upset that the supermarkets have their Halloween products out...

Yeah, WAY too soon.

I positively HATE Halloween, all parts of it. But Halloween is big business. Those "Spirit" seasonal stores can do $250-500K of business in a 8-10 week season. Part of their key seems to be having the store up in Sept so people think about "what they want to go as" for weeks, then selling most stuff the last 10 days before. Think about those numbers, even a 10-15% margin lets you make $40,000 in 2 months. Amazing.

BTW: Sometimes the stores having the Christmas stuff up early is for internal reasons. Near here there was a store used to have the Christmas Stuff up at Labor Day. I found out years later it was a "model store display" so the regional managers could tinker with the plans for a few months.

Quote: AZDuffman

I positively HATE Halloween, all parts of it.

Its a stupid 'holiday' and its not even a holiday.
Whats happened is, kids stay in their adolescence
now until their 30, and Halloween is a big part
of being a kid. They dress up like 8year olds when
their 25 and 30 and go to work that way on
Halloween. My wife gets into decorating the porch
and handing out candy, but even she is saying its
more bother than its worth. And expensive. She
packaged up 130 packets of candy last year
and gave every one away in 90 min, and had to
turn off the light as they kept coming. Screw that..

Yep, too early for Xmas decor.

As for the commercial establishments promoting their merchandise too early, it's not the Halloween masks now nor the Xmas stockings in late October that get me. I'm more bothered with the way clothing stores (or clothing departments) stock their seasonal goods. In August, I went in looking for some pocket T shirts and a pair of shorts. The goods on sale were sweaters and coats. If I go to a store looking for a replacement winter jacket in February because mine wore out, they have gobs of swimwear on sale. I don't need new swimming trunks until May, if then. And I don't buy sweaters when it's 90 degrees in the shade outdoors. Must be that I'm not the target market for the retailers. Who is?

Quote: Doc

If I go to a store looking for a replacement winter jacket in February because mine wore out, they have gobs of swimwear on sale.

Its always been that way, probably for a hundred
years or more. Try finding an air conditioner or a
fan in most stores now, unless they specialize in
appliances. Stores assume you'll stock up early
for the coming season and buy your wool blankets
in Sept and not March.

Quote: Doc

In August, I went in looking for some pocket T shirts and a pair of shorts. The goods on sale were sweaters and coats. If I go to a store looking for a replacement winter jacket in February because mine wore out, they have gobs of swimwear on sale. I don't need new swimming trunks until May, if then. And I don't buy sweaters when it's 90 degrees in the shade outdoors. Must be that I'm not the target market for the retailers. Who is?

Off-season is the best time to buy clothes. As you noted, retailers run ahead of the weather. So you go to the outlet shops and find off-season apparel at a discount.

It's really funny you don't know this :)

I guess I just don't get the whole idea of spending big bucks to decorate your house for the holiday season.

Heck, I don't even put out a few strings of lights anymore.

Bah, humbug.

Quote: EvenBob

Its a stupid 'holiday' and its not even a holiday.
Whats happened is, kids stay in their adolescence
now until their 30, and Halloween is a big part
of being a kid. They dress up like 8year olds when
their 25 and 30 and go to work that way on
Halloween. My wife gets into decorating the porch
and handing out candy, but even she is saying its
more bother than its worth. And expensive. She
packaged up 130 packets of candy last year
and gave every one away in 90 min, and had to
turn off the light as they kept coming. Screw that..

I agree except for it stopping at 30. I try to not even be home Haloween night. Either I volunteer to take that shift if I am working somewhere that needs the help or I go out to eat and enjoy good service since so many people are home for the whole thing. As to "screw that" back in WNY a woman who worked for me lived on a nice, level street with houses close together and one of the closer suburbs to the city. She said they got over a hundred people a year as gorups in the inner-city dropped near busloads of kids in her neighborhood to trick or treat.

For some reason this is a post-1980s thing. Years ago when you became an adult you became an adult and moved on. Now Halloween is I think the #2 bar night of the year (night before Thanksgiving is #1 IIRC.)

Too bad the ACLU doesn't put the same effort into "getting religion out of the public square" with Halloween as they do with Christmas.

Quote: AZDuffman

She said they got over a hundred people a year as gorups in the inner-city dropped near busloads of kids in her neighborhood to trick or treat.

When I had the cab company in the 80's,
I never realized what a big deal Halloween
is in the inner city neighborhoods. Their
goal seems to be to get enough candy to
last till next year. The big thing was 'bag
snatching', as they called it. Groups of teens
would prowl the neighborhoods and steal
the bags of candy from little grade school
kids, as many as they could for as long as
they could. We stayed away from those
neighborhoods on that night, its a good way
to get killed.

WAY TOO EARLY! I hope the neighborhood teenagers have fun rearranging the reindeer into naughty positions on a weekly basis. Maybe then those people will wait until the weekend after Thanksgiving, when it's the proper time to put up those decorations.

Related thoughts:
I read somewhere that certain condo and subdivision associations have banned putting up decorations more than a month prior to the specific holiday they are for!

Maybe if nobody bought any of the holiday goods until closer to the correct time, the retailers would stop putting them out so early.

I hate it when my mother-in-law asks me what I want for Christmas in September-October. She hates it that I don't start my Christmas shopping until 12/10 or so.

Quote: Doc

As for the commercial establishments promoting their merchandise too early, it's not the Halloween masks now nor the Xmas stockings in late October that get me. I'm more bothered with the way clothing stores (or clothing departments) stock their seasonal goods. In August, I went in looking for some pocket T shirts and a pair of shorts. The goods on sale were sweaters and coats. If I go to a store looking for a replacement winter jacket in February because mine wore out, they have gobs of swimwear on sale. I don't need new swimming trunks until May, if then. And I don't buy sweaters when it's 90 degrees in the shade outdoors. Must be that I'm not the target market for the retailers. Who is?

As far as Christmas, in stores, you'd be SHOCKED to see how many people start buying now. Seriously, it's ridiculous. I work in the retail industry, and it is sick to see people shopping for it. That being said, obviously there's a demand, so we have to supply...

For people putting up lights, if they want to do it when it's nice out, understandable... BUT DON'T TURN THEM ON!! It's way too early for that.

For Doc's comment above, most fashion outlets stock early since that's when the suppliers get the merchandise out. I agree with him; it's annoying that we don't have gloves in February when the blizzard hits... Realize that most merchandise bought for larger corporations are ordered a YEAR in advance. This gives the supplier enough time to make sure the boats from China get over here in time (I joke, kind of, but there's a lot of truth in it).

The fashion industry operates a season ahead, so high-fashion stores have to move current seasonal goods in order to get the newest greatest fashion item. Again, to me, it seems silly, but this is how we've trained high-end customers to shop, so that's how the business operates. Remember, it's those people who allow lower priced goods to exist; without them, you wouldn't get the great sales and deals to be found during the current season.

Quote: Nareed

Off-season is the best time to buy clothes. As you noted, retailers run ahead of the weather. So you go to the outlet shops and find off-season apparel at a discount.

It's really funny you don't know this :)

Of course I know it. I just don't like it. I find it very inconvenient to buy clothes or most anything else in a season for which I have absolutely no use for it and then, when it is really an appropriate season for the item, not be able to find it anywhere. I'd prefer that the store keep their inventory in a warehouse or at the manufacturer rather than expecting me to buy it early, at an inconvenient time, and store it myself until a need might arise.

The hardware stores seem to have their snow shovels out on display in December, not in July-August -- they understand supplying to demand rather than to speculation. And I understand that the K-mart in Anchorage or Cleveland might need sweaters and wind breakers out front and center by the first of September, but not the K-marts in the sun belt.

(And no, I wasn't shopping at K-mart; there isn't even one nearby. I just named a place we all know and which stocks clothing by the same ridiculous schedule as other stores.)

Quote: Tiltpoul

As far as Christmas, in stores, you'd be SHOCKED to see how many people start buying now. Seriously, it's ridiculous. I work in the retail industry, and it is sick to see people shopping for it. That being said, obviously there's a demand, so we have to supply...

I suspect the "demand" is there because so many people realize that "Christmas" items are almost all gone from the shelves when it comes a reasonable time to buy them. I deal with that by rarely buying Christmas goods -- if they are sold out, then I saved the money.

Quote: Tiltpoul

As far as Christmas, in stores, you'd be SHOCKED to see how many people start buying now. Seriously, it's ridiculous. I work in the retail industry, and it is sick to see people shopping for it. That being said, obviously there's a demand, so we have to supply...

I will start earlier than usual this year as I plan to repeat last year's "online only" method I did for the first time. With a little effort you would be amazed how you can get nice stuff, fair price, and not have to look like you either became the Wal-Mart "customer of the month" of just wimped out and got a bunch of "gift idea" things at Macy's. I am also going to attempt as Much "made in USA" as I can, though going 100% there will not be possible with a few ideas I have already. For the niece and nephew nothing that needs batteries and preferebly something that makes use of the mind or imagination. So I become "that uncle" I guess.

Quote: Doc

Of course I know it. I just don't like it. I find it very inconvenient to buy clothes or most anything else in a season for which I have absolutely no use for it and then, when it is really an appropriate season for the item, not be able to find it anywhere.

As far as my experience goes, you find such things at the outlet stores right in the season you want them, and much cheaper. So I fail to understand your complaint.

Of course, if you don't have an outlet shop nearby, it can be a bit of a bother. Me, I've got one just 20 minutes away.

Quote: AZDuffman

I will start earlier than usual this year

I'm with Ed McMahon, who never shopped for
anything till Dec 23rd.

Quote: EvenBob

I'm with Ed McMahon, who never shopped for
anything till Dec 23rd.

My first year our family Christmas got "delayed" to MLK-Day weekend as neither my brother nor myself could make it home in December. I bought my brother-in-law some BBQ sauce that got broken in transit. Had to get a last-minute gift, IN MID JANUARY! You would be amazed how empty the stores are of gift-ideas after they clear all the holiday stuff out.