Why do stores put up Halloween stuff in the middle of July

[Max Rockatansky]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Nobody is saying that. It's not something I loose sleep over. It would just be nice if we could keep Halloween sales until around September. Thanksgiving until after Halloween. And then Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not demanding that happens. Yes, obviously people are buying shit or they wouldn't be doing this. Society is a bunch of crap. It's no different than the same people that will complain about a Walmart being built near their neighborhood and then shop there after it's built. This is a discussion forum and I'm giving my opinion. It's not just big box stores that do this shit either I've seen smaller mom and Pop shops do this as well.

It would just be nice to see Holiday themed decorations and sells put out closer to around the time the holiday is.

The problem is that you are finding scapegoats to lessen your enjoyment of a holiday.  If society is such a bother, tune it out.

[Plutonic Panda]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Nobody is saying that. It's not something I loose sleep over. It would just be nice if we could keep Halloween sales until around September. Thanksgiving until after Halloween. And then Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not demanding that happens. Yes, obviously people are buying shit or they wouldn't be doing this. Society is a bunch of crap. It's no different than the same people that will complain about a Walmart being built near their neighborhood and then shop there after it's built. This is a discussion forum and I'm giving my opinion. It's not just big box stores that do this shit either I've seen smaller mom and Pop shops do this as well.

It would just be nice to see Holiday themed decorations and sells put out closer to around the time the holiday is.

The problem is that you are finding scapegoats to lessen your enjoyment of a holiday.  If society is such a bother, tune it out.

I'm not finding scapegoats to less than my enjoyment of holidays. If I didn't like holidays, I would just come out and say I don't like them. What makes you think you know me so well? I've always thought this way in generally have loved holidays.

Now granted, I will admit I am growing a little bit colder as I get older and I'm enjoying holidays less than I used to mainly because of work and stuff like that. I've heard the term that Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas anymore and the older I get the more I feel like that. Tribute to me saying Christmas stuff out way before Christmas, but I don't think that's the only reason I'm feeling that way.

I'm just saying it would be nice if stores wouldn't put out Christmas trees in fucking August. It would be nice not to see Halloween shit three months before Halloween. This thread is about that. And yes, it does bother me a bit but more so with Halloween than anything because that's my favorite tradition(not technically a holiday) But I'll just say it's a holiday and it's my favorite one of the year.

Once again, this isn't something I lose sleep over. I don't hate holidays. In generally when I walk into a store and I see Holiday stuff for sale well before holidays, it does bug me and when I get in the car, I may mumble to myself or whoever is with me a little bit about it and then 10 minutes later, I forget about it.

[webny99]

Christmas music in the middle of November is too far.

Unfortunately, much of the retail world has the exact opposite interpretation of this sentence. For them, the middle of November is too late to start playing holiday music. They're already late to the party by that point.

[Max Rockatansky]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Nobody is saying that. It's not something I loose sleep over. It would just be nice if we could keep Halloween sales until around September. Thanksgiving until after Halloween. And then Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not demanding that happens. Yes, obviously people are buying shit or they wouldn't be doing this. Society is a bunch of crap. It's no different than the same people that will complain about a Walmart being built near their neighborhood and then shop there after it's built. This is a discussion forum and I'm giving my opinion. It's not just big box stores that do this shit either I've seen smaller mom and Pop shops do this as well.

It would just be nice to see Holiday themed decorations and sells put out closer to around the time the holiday is.

The problem is that you are finding scapegoats to lessen your enjoyment of a holiday.  If society is such a bother, tune it out.

I'm not finding scapegoats to less than my enjoyment of holidays. If I didn't like holidays, I would just come out and say I don't like them. What makes you think you know me so well? I've always thought this way in generally have loved holidays.

Now granted, I will admit I am growing a little bit colder as I get older and I'm enjoying holidays less than I used to mainly because of work and stuff like that. I've heard the term that Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas anymore and the older I get the more I feel like that. Tribute to me saying Christmas stuff out way before Christmas, but I don't think that's the only reason I'm feeling that way.

I'm just saying it would be nice if stores wouldn't put out Christmas trees in fucking August. It would be nice not to see Halloween shit three months before Halloween. This thread is about that. And yes, it does bother me a bit but more so with Halloween than anything because that's my favorite tradition(not technically a holiday) But I'll just say it's a holiday and it's my favorite one of the year.

Once again, this isn't something I lose sleep over. I don't hate holidays. In generally when I walk into a store and I see Holiday stuff for sale well before holidays, it does bug me and when I get in the car, I may mumble to myself or whoever is with me a little bit about it and then 10 minutes later, I forget about it.

Can you really blame a retail store for pushing high margin items that sell?  Stores will go exploit what ads net profit to the bottom line.  Clearly there is a market for early holiday wares given how prolific they are. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Christmas music in the middle of November is too far.

Unfortunately, much of the retail world has the exact opposite interpretation of this sentence. For them, the middle of November is too late to start playing holiday music. They're already late to the party by that point.

There is a whole theory amongst retailer merchandisers about store music.  Apparently it tends to induce sensory deprivation and make people lose their sense of time.  The holiday music is supposed to enhance that further by making things seem festive. 

Similarly there are retail merchandising practices about not placing visible clocks or having a view of the outside.  The idea about shifting of plan-o-grams is to force customers to search/shop the store.  The hope is that they might pick up additional items they didn't plan to buy. 

Basically, none of these practices are probably aimed at people replying to this thread.  My wife or a lot of normal people are no doubt the target demographic.  What a lot of you aren't getting is that there is an actual strategy to retail merchandising.

[webny99]

^ I for one totally get why it's done, and I know for myself that music tends to cause one to lose sense of time. I just don't think it's necessary but it makes sense from a retail marketing and ambience perspective.

[SectorZ]

It's weird that Walmart was always this bad for Christmas stuff when I worked there 25 years ago. Christmas stuff was already arriving for the stockroom area by late August, but they were good at holding it back to mid-October or so. They staged Halloween near Stationary and Christmas in Lawn & Garden so they could stage both simultaneously. Usually they clearanced out/hid in the back the lawn and garden stuff starting before Columbus Day.

I don't even know what they do now because I go so little I've lost track of the timing. Whatever charm it had is long gone, especially with the stale supercenter I have that usurped the regular one I worked in.

I don't know if anyone agrees with me here, but the magic of retail there used to be is quite dead and gone now. I actually enjoyed my time in retail but I know I would loathe it now.

[Max Rockatansky]

There was magic to retail?  For me it has always been a transactional experience.

[Henry]

Lately, I've seen this done earlier and earlier in advance, because they want to give shoppers a jump on the season. In addition to the ones already mentioned, I've also seen Fourth of July stuff coming out in May, and Back-to-School stuff in June, shortly after the previous school year has ended.

[hotdogPi]

I don't think it's gotten any earlier. I remember stores like Macy's beginning in early September my entire life.

[SEWIGuy]

There was magic to retail?  For me it has always been a transactional experience.

I think any magic is seen through the eyes of childhood nostalgia a la The Christmas Story. I doubt it every really existed for adults.

[Max Rockatansky]

There was magic to retail?  For me it has always been a transactional experience.

I think any magic is seen through the eyes of childhood nostalgia a la The Christmas Story. I doubt it every really existed for adults.

Perhaps, I never found stores to be anything special growing up.

[Plutonic Panda]

External influences only become a factor if you allow to be.  It isn't as though Sam Walton is kicking down your door to advertise Christmas decor. 

Nobody is saying that. It's not something I loose sleep over. It would just be nice if we could keep Halloween sales until around September. Thanksgiving until after Halloween. And then Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I'm not demanding that happens. Yes, obviously people are buying shit or they wouldn't be doing this. Society is a bunch of crap. It's no different than the same people that will complain about a Walmart being built near their neighborhood and then shop there after it's built. This is a discussion forum and I'm giving my opinion. It's not just big box stores that do this shit either I've seen smaller mom and Pop shops do this as well.

It would just be nice to see Holiday themed decorations and sells put out closer to around the time the holiday is.

The problem is that you are finding scapegoats to lessen your enjoyment of a holiday.  If society is such a bother, tune it out.

I'm not finding scapegoats to less than my enjoyment of holidays. If I didn't like holidays, I would just come out and say I don't like them. What makes you think you know me so well? I've always thought this way in generally have loved holidays.

Now granted, I will admit I am growing a little bit colder as I get older and I'm enjoying holidays less than I used to mainly because of work and stuff like that. I've heard the term that Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas anymore and the older I get the more I feel like that. Tribute to me saying Christmas stuff out way before Christmas, but I don't think that's the only reason I'm feeling that way.

I'm just saying it would be nice if stores wouldn't put out Christmas trees in fucking August. It would be nice not to see Halloween shit three months before Halloween. This thread is about that. And yes, it does bother me a bit but more so with Halloween than anything because that's my favorite tradition(not technically a holiday) But I'll just say it's a holiday and it's my favorite one of the year.

Once again, this isn't something I lose sleep over. I don't hate holidays. In generally when I walk into a store and I see Holiday stuff for sale well before holidays, it does bug me and when I get in the car, I may mumble to myself or whoever is with me a little bit about it and then 10 minutes later, I forget about it.

Can you really blame a retail store for pushing high margin items that sell?  Stores will go exploit what ads net profit to the bottom line.  Clearly there is a market for early holiday wares given how prolific they are. 

We can argue about—what were we arguing in the other thread but I can't argue with you on this. I'm kind of a hypocrite because if I owned a store, I'll probably be doing the same thing.

[Scott5114]

There is a whole theory amongst retailer merchandisers about store music.  Apparently it tends to induce sensory deprivation and make people lose their sense of time. 

See, this is interesting to me because I already have a poor sense of time, but music actually makes me more aware of it. A song is normally somewhere between two and five minutes long, so that helps me segment the time.

Of course it's even easier if it's a song you're familiar with. I played the first Splatoon enough that I could pretty reliably tell how much time was left on the clock just based on the music.

[Plutonic Panda]

The other thing is, you're kinda forced to shop early which again ruins the special feel of "that time of the year" if you want to get anything good. If you wait until closer to whatever holiday it is you're shopping for most of the good stuff is gone.

[Max Rockatansky]

There is a whole theory amongst retailer merchandisers about store music.  Apparently it tends to induce sensory deprivation and make people lose their sense of time.

See, this is interesting to me because I already have a poor sense of time, but music actually makes me more aware of it. A song is normally somewhere between two and five minutes long, so that helps me segment the time.

Of course it's even easier if it's a song you're familiar with. I played the first Splatoon enough that I could pretty reliably tell how much time was left on the clock just based on the music.

Me personally, I always preferred the sound of silence at Target.  Listening to all these merchandisers/buyers talk about their theories and strategies as an outside observer was fascinating. 

[Flint1979]

Probably to try to sell as much as they can. I just noticed a Spirit Halloween store in Saginaw today.

[Plutonic Panda]

Probably to try to sell as much as they can. I just noticed a Spirit Halloween store in Saginaw today.

I saw a Spirit Halloween sign today as well in LA on what look like to be an old marquee from a movie theater.

[vdeane]

There is a whole theory amongst retailer merchandisers about store music.  Apparently it tends to induce sensory deprivation and make people lose their sense of time.

See, this is interesting to me because I already have a poor sense of time, but music actually makes me more aware of it. A song is normally somewhere between two and five minutes long, so that helps me segment the time.

Of course it's even easier if it's a song you're familiar with. I played the first Splatoon enough that I could pretty reliably tell how much time was left on the clock just based on the music.

Me personally, I always preferred the sound of silence at Target.  Listening to all these merchandisers/buyers talk about their theories and strategies as an outside observer was fascinating. 

Hello darkness my old friend...

[Flint1979]

Probably to try to sell as much as they can. I just noticed a Spirit Halloween store in Saginaw today.

I saw a Spirit Halloween sign today as well in LA on what look like to be an old marquee from a movie theater.

The location I saw it at was a former Bed, Bath & Beyond and originally a BEST if anyone remembers that store. You can even see the label scar from BEST on the building in this GSV, https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4714395,-83.9733285,3a,75y,96.43h,95.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D96.42981661680366%26pitch%3D-5.017623129505438%26thumbfov%3D90!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1?coh=205410&entry=ttu

[Plutonic Panda]

Probably to try to sell as much as they can. I just noticed a Spirit Halloween store in Saginaw today.

I saw a Spirit Halloween sign today as well in LA on what look like to be an old marquee from a movie theater.

The location I saw it at was a former Bed, Bath & Beyond and originally a BEST if anyone remembers that store. You can even see the label scar from BEST on the building in this GSV, https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4714395,-83.9733285,3a,75y,96.43h,95.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D96.42981661680366%26pitch%3D-5.017623129505438%26thumbfov%3D90!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1?coh=205410&entry=ttu

I'll have to go back and remember where I saw this one at. I was pretty surprised because it was in a pretty historic building. Usually spirit Halloween stores are in these old Bed Bath and beyond type stores that have gone out of business. I'm wanting to say this one was on Wilshire, but I'm not sure I'll go back and retrace my steps later tonight

[Flint1979]

Probably to try to sell as much as they can. I just noticed a Spirit Halloween store in Saginaw today.

I saw a Spirit Halloween sign today as well in LA on what look like to be an old marquee from a movie theater.

The location I saw it at was a former Bed, Bath & Beyond and originally a BEST if anyone remembers that store. You can even see the label scar from BEST on the building in this GSV, https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4714395,-83.9733285,3a,75y,96.43h,95.02t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DPePDsSxD5wXuFwa5iMMeXQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D96.42981661680366%26pitch%3D-5.017623129505438%26thumbfov%3D90!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e1?coh=205410&entry=ttu

I'll have to go back and remember where I saw this one at. I was pretty surprised because it was in a pretty historic building. Usually spirit Halloween stores are in these old Bed Bath and beyond type stores that have gone out of business. I'm wanting to say this one was on Wilshire, but I'm not sure I'll go back and retrace my steps later tonight

Yeah they probably just get any spot where the lease is cheap enough.

[TXtoNJ]

There are a lot of people for whom Halloween is their favorite holiday, and are willing to spend the money. Also, the property lease is likely for a quarter (Aug-Sept-Oct), so why not make that as revenue generating as possible?

[JayhawkCO]

Now granted, I will admit I am growing a little bit colder as I get older and I'm enjoying holidays less than I used to mainly because of work and stuff like that. I've heard the term that Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas anymore and the older I get the more I feel like that. Tribute to me saying Christmas stuff out way before Christmas, but I don't think that's the only reason I'm feeling that way.

I'm just saying it would be nice if stores wouldn't put out Christmas trees in fucking August. It would be nice not to see Halloween shit three months before Halloween. This thread is about that. And yes, it does bother me a bit but more so with Halloween than anything because that's my favorite tradition(not technically a holiday) But I'll just say it's a holiday and it's my favorite one of the year.

It's completely normal to care less about the holidays as you get older. When you're little, Santa bringing you stuff is magical. After you find out he doesn't exist (spoiler alert), then it's still getting presents because you can't buy them yourself. Once you have a job/career and you can buy the things you want yourself, it's basically just nostalgia, and, at least for me, that loses some luster as you get older too.

Same thing with Halloween. When you're little, you get to play dress up AND you get candy. When you're a little older, it's a good, drunken party with scantily clad ladies. After those days, it's pretty much just an opportunity to have leftover candy that you otherwise wouldn't have bought for yourself and see some smiling kids.

I will say that having a toddler right now is bringing a little bit more of the joy to my holiday experiences. I hadn't cared about fireworks on the 4th in decades, but seeing my son's face and hearing him scream "oh, man!" every time there was a big one was very fun.

I don't think any of the "holidays losing its luster" comes from retail stores' decisions on when to market their goods.

[Rothman]

Pfft.  I like handing out candy on Halloween, especially the traditional trick-or-treaters.

When another, younger generation recognizes that you can do both trick-or-treat and be carted off by parents for "trunk-or-treating," that will be the generation that will save our country.