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Christmas in September Leaves Shoppers Cold

No, you're not crazy, it is still September

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 28, 2009 3:32 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Look around your local department store, and you might encounter a ridiculous site: a Christmas display. Yes, retailers are already decking their halls, desperate to get a piece of consumers’ dwindling holiday budgets before their competitors do. Consumers aren't buying it. “You can’t get in the Christmas spirit in September man,” one shopper tells the Boston Globe. “Crazy, all this stuff so early.”

But retailers say it’s crazy like a fox (or maybe a reindeer). “If retailers weren’t successful with this strategy, those shelves, which are valuable real estate, would be shelving other things,” said a rep for a retail trade group. The group’s estimates that 40% of the country starts shopping before Halloween. “If you’re not doing this, you are just handing over market share.”

A shopper walks past a holiday display inside a Kroger Co. grocery store in this file photo.
A shopper walks past a holiday display inside a Kroger Co. grocery store in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Al Behrman)
A pedestrian walks by a Christmas themed window display at a Macy's store in this file photo.
A pedestrian walks by a Christmas themed window display at a Macy's store in this file photo.   (Getty Images)
Holiday gift cards are seen on display for sale at a Best Buy store in Mountain View, Calif., Monday, Dec. 17, 2007.
Holiday gift cards are seen on display for sale at a Best Buy store in Mountain View, Calif., Monday, Dec. 17, 2007.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 10 comments
Toon
Sep 29, 2009 5:10 AM CDT
When you use an insult as your name it's going make others view you poorly. Its that whole honey vs. vinegar thing.
Jes
Sep 29, 2009 5:03 AM CDT
Yeah, but the first word of my post was the f-bomb. I agree, painful as it is, with Lib-Fas on this one. Thumbing people down based not on an individual comment but because you disagree with their avatar, their S/N, or their comments on other threads is ridiculous.
Liberal_Fascist
Sep 29, 2009 2:23 AM CDT
And, OMG, WHY is that comment objectionable to someone? I basically said the same thing as Jes, and that one got +9. ???????

 
retail • holiday • holiday shopping • holiday season

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