Kmart Launches Christmas Site In July
You know "Christmas in July?" Kmart does. They sent a mailing out to customers today about their new site, Christmas Lane. It promises "the best deals for Christmas, 5 months early." To us, that's more of a threat than a promise.
Well, I guess early July is as good a time as any to buy a pre-lit Christmas tree.
Christmas Lane [Kmart]
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Jesus, I hope my grandma hasn't seen this.
Attention K-Mart Shoppers. To make life more convenient for you in these tough economic times, we are making every day EXCEPT December 25 Christmas. You will see sales running 24/7 except for 12:25 AM and PM. Please do not mistake this for our way of increasing sales to stay financially viable and thereby not be subject to a buyout and become a part of the government monopoly....GM for short... We have however, turned off our blue light [specials] to be more environmentally green. Thank-you!
I think this is kind of not-bad, actually. I mean, one of the best ways to shop for Christmas, I've found, is to just buy all year long and, assuming you don't live with most of your gifts' recipients, just stockpile them until Christmas. So, if they're just offering sales early, what's the big deal? I mean, what's different about this as opposed to raiding all the sales on the day-after-Christmas. That's even earlier...like 364 days earlier. Same concept, though.
Yikes, we're not even bothering to market for Halloween anymore, then? The recession must be making the retailers really desperate.
Still, this doesn't beat this one local merchant that has their store nearby where I live. There, they sell Christmas stuff all year round. Seriously, they are exclusively a Christmas and Halloween store.
you sure that they're not still trying to move Christmas 2008 stuff?
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm kind of obsessed with Christmas. Still, I don't really care for Kmart but I do love Christmas!
@catastrophegirl - just add kittens: Craft stores don't count. 6 months is about right to start craft projects related to a holiday. The Christmas stuff should be rolling out soon if it hasn't already there.
Yuck-FLASH! I love Christmas, but does the web really need another super-lame, all-Flash site? Only K-Mart could drop a lame bomb like this on us.
Hey, speaking of K-Mart, I've noticed Craftsman tools are disappearing and Stanley tools are arriving. What's the story on this? Craftsman was the one thing that made K-Mart stand out. You can get Stanley tools at Wal-Mart.
So, I generally start my Christmas shopping in August (if not earlier) and I like to be done before Thanksgiving, but I don't really want to be MARKETED to about it. I want to buy presents -- which are things that don't have creepy Santas all over them but things I think my relatives will actually like and so don't need to be "seasonal" or come from seasonal sales -- and I want to do it with as little holiday muzak in my life as possible.
And then I want Christmas itself to be EXCITING and full of anticipation (and by Thanksgiving, I'm already done with shopping, yay, so I can enjoy the Xmas season) ... which it is NOT when Christmas marketing starts in JULY. Or even October. By the time Christmas rolls around when I've been exposed to that, I'm freaking TIRED of it.
AKA: We have too much left over inventory from Christmases past so we're passing the savings ON TO YOU!!!
@joe.glass: There's usually not that much stuff left over, mostly due to the 75% off sales afterwards. I have a shipping container full of Christmas stuff bought at 75% off upstairs in a closet.
Kmart still has a layaway program. Letting people buy their Christmas things early is a nice idea. Their layaway contracts are eight weeks so there is time, if one starts early, to layaway several times between now and December.
The real threat here is having to buy anything from K-Mart. Its like downtown Baghdad in those stores...
In a way, I can't really bitch, I took advantage of a 75% off clearance on Nickelodeon stuff this past weekend to take care of birthdays and Christmas for my family.
@ajlei: Me too! I'm a Christmas idiot. Christmas creep just builds the anticipation, and I love all the silly lights and decorations. It's just a bunch of goofiness leading up to a cinnamon roll-filled morning with my nutso family. Yay♥
@Radi0logy: Not the one near me. It's like "I Am Legend" in there (the last man on Earth part, not the vampire part). They closed all of them but one in a 20 mile radius around me. This one's in the next town over and I'm honestly not sure how they're still in business. I'm thinking it's a situation similar to Milton in "Office Space"-- the store actually closed 5 years ago, but through a computer glitch no one who works there was ever informed.
Yet another reason to hate Christmas.
please kill me. i can't handle another 6 months of Christmas.
My parents are a little lazy, they just leave their Christmas lights up all year long and only turn them on in the winter. I always laugh at them for doing that but maybe they're ahead of the time. In another decade the stores will just have Christmas decorations and Santa Claus all year long. If you're going to start 5 months early, what's a few more months? Ho Ho Ho!
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): This is just how I felt about the 2008 presidential campaign.
My next door neighbor is all set for Christmas...the lights are already up on his house.
Does it count if they never took them down from last year?
I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future, we have stores constantly stocking Christmas stuff, just never stopping after Christmas. Oh well, I'm sure that my friend will have his shopping for Christmas of 2010 done soon - she likes to be early.
@chiieddy: these weren't really things you'd use for crafting though - they were already finished, complete decorations. with the glitter and stickers and all that stuff already stuck on them
I guess this is just another way for them to push sales in a slow period. As some of you may know, Sear's and K-Mart are one company now and I recently left the employment of Sears due to them threatening to write us up if we didn't get at least one credit application from a customer each day. You can't force people to apply for credit and this was total BS.
@RogerTheAlien: There's a difference between gifts and decorations. I like to get ideas & maybe purchase through the year, but winter-time decor in July isn't my cup of tea.
On the other hand, I do stock up on wrapping paper, etc around New Year's. So I see your point.
@me and the sysop: Exactly! Plus, I'm a christmas music fanatic. I could let Andy Williams serenade me all night.
@floraposte: That's how I've felt with every presidential campaign of my lifetime!
Two years is waaaaaay too long, and the fact that they start jockeying for 2012 as soon as 2008 is over ... someone bitchslap them all, please.
Can all those idiots who say there's a "war on Christmas" just STFU now?
the complete lack of equal rights for hallowe'en shoppers with early sales is .... oh wait, i saw hallowe'en stuff at michael's crafts on friday. it's not quite as early but 4 months before a holiday is still sooner than you used to see christmas stuff a decade ago or so. [my memory is shoddy on the annual average christmas creep - i am a christmas eve shopper]