I noticed the shops are starting to stock christmas stuff. To quote Lewis Black - ‘How long does it take you pr##ks to shop?’
What’s scary is that by this time next year, they’ll be setting up for Xmas '09!
Because it always bloody well does. 
It often strikes me that even Christians cannot be too pleased about this, because surely no-one can like having their serious religious occasion turned into such a terrible consumer-fest.
To be fair, it does seem to me that I didn’t notice an influx of Christmassy stuff until after the equinox this year, BUT I think I may just be developing selective blindness. 
I do suspect the latter, actually. But the only shopping I do is general purpose shopping for groceries, household stuff, etc., so it’s possible that the other shops, as opposed to my supermarket and the small local shops I use, have gone all xmassy “buy a party dress NOW” sort-of-thing.
I like that Lewis Black thing, though. However, the “Christmas is far too commercialised and starts too soon” thing seems to have always been with us, although I do agree that it is getting worse. It also annoys me that soon there will be a silly amount of Hallowe’en stuff, including pumpkins, for goodness sake.
I see you are in Australia, so you won’t, in that case, also have to suffer the shops being piled high with fireworks and so on for Guy Fawkes’ night of fun for every tiresome child who likes making loud scary bangs. Grrrr. Yeah, I could live with that, but am not happy with c. 6 weeks of unpredictable loud bangs before and after it. (Yes, yes, I know - “kids these days” etc. I R old fogey. )
If we all get together and start now, is there any chance we can put an end to this excessive and wasteful thing? Bah, theoretically, I suppose it doesn’t harm me, but it is damn tedious and, O rats, will get worse in a few weeks when any trip to get bread, milk, vegetables etc. will perforce be done to the sound of whatever ghastly kiddy school choir sickly “song” turns out to be the popular thing of the year.
Bah, humbug! (Hey, at least you will have summery weather as you suffer through it all. )
From “Santa Bloody Claus” by Eric Bogle, of course, but I think quoting a tiny bit of lyrics should be all right re. copyright.
They set up this early because the merchandise in the full stockroom can’t sell in the stockroom. The summer seasonal and school is done. The arriving stuff has to go somewhere. It goes on the sales floor, in the garden shop, in rented trailers, and anywhere you can put a box… The retailer I worked at, had three times the stockroom capacity arrive for Christmas sales, and it was like that for September, October, and November. It comes in as fast as it sells. You buy it from the manufactures by July or you don’t get merchandise for sale for Christmas. The merchandise is made and shipped sometimes by July to make it to the target store. The merchandise leaves China, sets in quarantine, and gets transfered to the distribution center, that sends it to the stores. Think of Christmas merchandise as water in a flood and it keeps raining. It’s has to go somewhere.
I fail to see how early October is an inappropriate time to see Halloween stuff at the store, seeing as how Halloween is at the end of the month.
Retail employee, here. I agree that it’s ridiculous, but I would like to point out that, at my store at least, we don’t get all our xmas stuff at once, but rather as part of our regular weekly shipments from July thru December. That stuff takes a up a LOT of room in a truck, and it’s just not feasable to send it all at once. It also takes up a lot of room in a stockroom, and the only solution to that problem is… start merchandising it out on the floor. So we have to unpack it all, set it up the way corp. wants it, price it, etc. etc. If we were to wait until late November/early December to begin, we’d never have everything out on time.
Also, people buy it as soon as we start putting it out, the weirdos! 
I’m surprised I beat my wife to this thread. We were both utterly appalled when we passed by a Rite Aid that was in the process of mounting a red and green bow over its front doors – at the end of AUGUST.
I’m still telling myself that maybe they were just making sure it fit or something like that, because what the hell?!
Oh, I’m down with this gripe.
I went grocery shopping day before yesterday. Day before yesterday. That would be the last day of September. There were holiday lights and Christmas cards right next to the styrofoam pumpkins and aluminum black cat decorations. As I left, I saw a small display of pre-lit Christmas trees hiding in the corner that used to hold their video rental section.
I swear the executives do it to spite us. Why they want to spite us, I don’t know. But it’s spite. (No, I’m not bitter…)
Last year, we noticed the Christmas decorations out early, but they were separate from the Halloween stuff. I pointed them out to my husband and we were discussing it in amazement when a staff member walks past and says, gruffly, “The Halloween stuff is in Aisle (whatever).” without even looking at us. Poor guy probably thought it was as stupid as we did and had customers bitching at him about it to boot–but wow, I know it’s not your fault, dude. It’s still dumb. They even had this 3 foot wooden sign up apologizing and explaining the decorations because “…some of our customers prefer to get their shopping done early in the season…” and apparently leaving them out early facilitates this. Bull, you just don’t like it sitting in your warehouse, but whatever. Ok, maybe I can just ignore it, I think. Kind of waters down the fun of the holiday for me, but I can tune it out, I think.
Then I went to buy a pumpkin in the evening the day before Halloween (I tried buying one weeks before a few years back and it just got soggy) and they had all been replaced with piles of shiny Christmas crap. Then we went to buy wrapping paper and more lights to hang on our patio a couple weeks before Christmas, and the selection had been picked clean.
RAH!! BEANPOD SMASH!
Come on–I’m all for being prepared. I organize stuff. I make lists. I have cute little colored bins in my linen closet for god’s sake. But please, I’m not even procrastinating here–two weeks before Christmas is too late to buy stuff? The day before Halloween is the time to get rid of the Halloween stuff and completely release the Christmas floodgates? Pumpkins? People use those for Thanksgiving, and making pumpkin pie, too, right? I imagine a small selection would have sold, right? Why can’t we actually purchase things for holidays near the time they are celebrated instead of 3 months early?
It seems to me the problem is that there’s just so much junk being sold and sent and bought and wrapped around Christmas–the manufacturers and suppliers obviously have too much crap sitting around and too much to do to save it until a reasonable time of year. What amazes me is that people buy this shit in October. Because they obviously are, because it’s there, and it’s gone when I want to buy it. So if I want to get my cards/ribbons/decorations, then I’VE got to buy it in October, too, and so the cycle begins. So my question is, who bought it first? Which consumer started this craziness? I’m tempted to track them down and play Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer at them until their ears bleed.
I know there’s nothing I can personally do about it going on around me, but it’s still annoying and all saps the fun for me.
ha! This wasn’t here when I started posting. Funny how we both thought of it as a flood. We’re probably not alone.
(Also I wanted to make sure you didn’t think I was fussing at you with my “release the floodgates” comment. )
The other amazing thing is that even though there are people who buy the crap early because it is there, try going shopping one week before xmas.
Is this the first ‘complaining about early xmas thread’ or did someone start one in February?
I love Halloween and like Christmas, but it pains me every year that Christmas further encroaches on what I’ve seen as Halloween’s seasonal territory. Spooky things and unintentionally creepy Christmas displays shouldn’t be set up near each other; it makes me wonder if execs are trying to intentionally make ironic displays with the talking skulls next to the even creepier talking Christmas trees. What makes it worse is that a lot of stores start playing the worst Christmas music they can find (often no more than twelve songs per store for the whole season) for nearly three months. By the time Christmas is a couple of weeks away, I want to strangle anyone who is playing Christmas music in their home after I’ve had to endure it for months in stores.
Although I don’t want to celebrate Christmas early, I still buy gifts early if I see a good deal.
I want to know who the fuck requested “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” today?!??!?! I already know which station played it, but I need to add the requestor to The List.
Then I have to figure out how to “repay” the people on The List.
Because in my slow-moving mind, it’s only just October. They can damn well wait for a few weeks. 
It’s the pumpkin thing that’s more annoying, though.
Eek. :eek: Sounds alarming. I haven’t met those. Would I regret it if I were to ask what sort of things they say?
For the record, “the Christmas season” has for many centuries started at sundown on December 24, and run for twelve days until Epiphany Eve (Twelvth Night) after sundown on January 5.
The pre-Christmas selling season for at least 50 years began at the beginning of business hours on the Friday following Thanksgiving (in the U.S.; preceding Advent Sunday in Canada and the U.K.).
Creeping seasonal slump is annoying. Notably if, halfway through the summer, you need to replace some summerwear and find the stores are all stocked to keep you warm next fall.
What’s wrong with the way things used to be.
(And get those reindeer off my lawn! :p)
Uh, it is only “just” October. The 2nd as I type this, or maybe the 3rd if you live in the Eastern Hemisphere. So you’re saying stuff should only be available for exactly one week prior to the associated day?
Here’s one.
Good gods, there’s more than one available!
Apparently there’s one that’s been hacked as well. :smack: The stupid things you find on YouTube.
This late? Hell, some stores had Xmas decorations up and music playing right after Labor Day.