It’s Beginning to Look EXACTLY Like Christmas             

I know, I know: retailers can’t wait to get started on their big holiday promotional activities and Christmas is the king of holiday retailing. They’ve been doing it for years. But does anybody else think even given that rule it’s all started WAY too early this year?

The Halloween giant skeletons and Barbie costumes are still being bought and Thanksgiving – er, excuse me, Harvest – has been up and running for some time…even if it’s a rather truncated seasonal promotion.

But Christmas ads, promotions, in-store and online marketing and all kinds of other yuletidings are all over the place. I saw my first TV commercials for the holiday season – thank you Walmart – on Oct. 22. That’s 63 days before Christmas and a month before the supposed start of the shopping season during Thanksgiving weekend…that fabled Black Friday thing that’s become so overblown in these days of online shopping.

Other retailers were right on top of Walmart from Kohl’s to JCPenney to Target to…well, to just about everybody else. I don’t watch a ton of network TV anymore but even my limited viewing seems to be dominated by Christmas music, tinsel and all manner of shiny, sparkly things. It’s been 80 degrees where I live but no matter, I feel like building a fire and putting up the stockings.

Who is to blame for all of this? Well, you can’t blame the retailers, they are just giving the customer what they want…or at least what they think they want. But as with so many things in the retail business these days, the blame – OK, some would say credit – goes to Amazon, which once again trotted out its Prime Day(s) promotional blitz in early October. The rest of the retail lemmings lined up accordingly and it seemed like every big national chain had some variation on this promo thing around the same week. It’s what they do.

The big question remains if people buying in early October are truly purchasing Christmas presents or are these totally unassociated with what they do in the weeks leading up to the big holiday? I don’t know but you have to think some of this feeding frenzy is in addition to what will be bought for holiday presents. Call it human nature, call it common sense, call it good old conspicuous consumption.

Just as it’s a little odd to buy patio furniture and a new swimming suit when there’s still snow on the ground, early Christmas shopping in October is a bit of a disconnect.

Pass the mistletoe and eggnog.