Holiday creep is getting out of hand

[Kittish]

Grocery shopping on the second of freakin' January and I come across this-



Even having Valentine's stuff out already is kind of pushing it in my opinion. But Easter?11eleventy

[Trixie]

One year we put out the Cadbury eggs by the front register in January. It was 50/50 of people who were angry and excited to have them out. People love those eggs so I can kinda understand why they're out. Personally I'll take a pass on them.

[Kittish]

I like the mini eggs, but the creme and chocolate creme and caramel eggs I'll pass on. Sweet overload about a third of the way through one, even with the smaller sizes. I just.. blargh! Easter isn't until April, why is Easter stuff already going out?! Before much longer we're going to wind up with half the floor space in most stores taken up with year-round holiday displays, for ALL the holidays. You want to get Easter stuff in October? Here ya go! Fourth of July in February? Sure!

[wolfie]

Before much longer we're going to wind up with half the floor space in most stores taken up with year-round holiday displays, for ALL the holidays. You want to get Easter stuff in October? Here ya go! Fourth of July in February? Sure!

The U.S. seems to be a nation of railfans, with the whole country celebrating the opening of the Grand Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool (1837) and the arrival of the first scheduled Canadian transcontinental passenger train in Port Moody, British Columbia (1886). Also (not train related) the founding of the city of Trois-Rivieres in New France (now Quebec) in 1634.

[Pixelated]

I like the mini eggs, but the creme and chocolate creme and caramel eggs I'll pass on. Sweet overload about a third of the way through one, even with the smaller sizes. I just.. blargh! Easter isn't until April, why is Easter stuff already going out?! Before much longer we're going to wind up with half the floor space in most stores taken up with year-round holiday displays, for ALL the holidays. You want to get Easter stuff in October? Here ya go! Fourth of July in February? Sure!

Don't give them ideas!

Seriously, who wants to have Valentine's Day stuff sitting around for six weeks?? (And yeah, I know the stuff you buy Feb. 10 is actually no fresher ... but leave me my illusions, okay? )

[BookstoreEscapee]

I must be turning into a grownup or something, because I used to love the regular eggs and now they're a little much. I love the candy-coated mini-eggs, though.

I did get a couple bags of Valentine's Day truffle Hershey Kisses last week, though.

[Dreamstalker]

My old place had the Cadbury eggs out in January one year too...it wasn't on the floor long, so I suspect someone just moved it out of the back because there wasn't room.

[Slayer]

It's easier to put out the holiday stuff early if you already have it in stock, rather than doing up a display for a couple of weeks just to take it all down again for holiday stuff. Though I agree the Easter one is a bit much.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Even having Valentine's stuff out already is kind of pushing it in my opinion. But Easter?11eleventy

It's either set up Valentines Day stuff early or have aisles sitting empty or half-empty. At the swamp we'd be out of a lot of Christmas stuff a week or two before the holiday.

For Easter stuff, all we'd put out that early is the Cadbury eggs because they did sell. We'd get candy corn in August and it would start selling as soon as we'd put it on the floor.

[Ree]

At the swamp we'd be out of a lot of Christmas stuff a week or two before the holiday.

That just happened at the dollar store where my daughter's friend works. They ran out of Christmas candy the week before Christmas, so they were stocking the shelves with the Valentine's candy.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Last time I was at the swamp was December 23, I think. No Valentines Day stuff on the shelves, just the sad remains of the unsold Christmas merchandise. It was half to three-quarters empty and looked terrible. Yet former co-workers told me there was more in the backroom.

Normally we would've had it all purged out of the backroom, condensed on the salesfloor, and Valentines day stuff set up. But operations have just slumped into a chaotic mess.

[ParkingWitch]

Normally we would've had it all purged out of the backroom, condensed on the salesfloor, and Valentines day stuff set up. But operations have just slumped into a chaotic mess.

Of course they have, you aren't there to do the work.

[Jetfire]

Depends on the store; in my experience, between Christmas and Valentines day is the unmarked holiday "Storage Season". Since most of the retailers will fill in the empty XMas shelves with rubbermaid containers of all shapes and sizes.

Of course, Valentines is already filling in the seasonal candy aisles as well; but it just isn't big enough to take up ALL that space. And poor St Patrick's Day barely gets a section or two before the bunny nudges it out.

Once the bunny sells out, that's when the spring and summer stock fills in the space (BBQs, Bikes, pool stuff), until Back to School starts up. Halloween Candy ("Treat Sized/Lunch Sized" candy in strangely thematic orange and black colours) will show up by late July/August with the BTS stuff, and XMas shows up again before the pumpkins are out the door. And the whole cycle starts over again.

At this point, I don't really bat an eye over it any more, and I don't think I'm really seeing *that* much more Seasonal creep. It does make sense, and not just manglement sense. The Seasonal department needs to be kept stocked somehow. Summer, Back to School and XMas are all usually big enough to push Seasonal larger than it might otherwise be; so when it's not one of those 3 seasons, it needs to be filled in somehow. The biggest gap is the January to Easter gap; so Easter covers most of it, and the January period gets Storage Wars and BTS2: The Revenge.

The rest of the holidays and seasonal stuff, just aren't big enough to pad out the space enough.

[mjr]

The U.S. seems to be a nation of railfans

The town where I live has an actual train yard...

[Ironclad Alibi]

If they put out the Cadbury's eggs early, why can't they also put out the Peeps? I wouldn't mind seeing those put out early.