I for one welcome our Santa overlords.

All hail the Crimson King!

I can beat that. My local Hallmark was playing christmas music in...July.

I gave the clerk an odd look and asked if it was for some "christmas in july" promo they were running (where the heck did that whole concept come from anyway?) but she said the manager had decided to play the carols because the new Christmas ornaments were going on sale that week.

- 100 for the manager for his choice to play the music, unless it was a corporate idea in which case -100 to corp.

Yay, Christmas! I only love it because of good times, good music, and good friends and family. I don't care for shopping for crap that people don't need. Although it is funny to watch people go crazy on Black Friday, lol.

Oh kroger, you sneaky one. Just when I got your discount card.

Which is funny, because I ran out of groceries over the weekend, and I thought "well i'll check out what kroger has to offer" when I was at my weekly Target trip, and did not buy any groceries.

Any idea whats coming next?

Woke up all sorts of sick in the middle of the night with a runny nose, cough , wicked headache and a healthy dose of fever. With no groceries at all. Not even milk. Except for a can of baked beans. Thank god for that can of baked beans, I could at least have enough to take a tylenol.

And thanks to our awesome health care system, the three docs i contacted in the area a few months ago were all too busy to take on new patients. So right now I have insurance but no doctor. :/

Hopefully this is only run of the mill fever.

Coming to think of it, I am now convinced that the Target Gods are punishing me for trying to cheat on them.

@Fatty Shcock: I like to "watch" them from my bed on Black Friday. I think that I've only gone out to a store once on Black Friday and that was plenty for me.

That's probably more of a Muzak issue than Kroger itself. Although, all I can say is I have sympathy for those poor grocery store workers. My dislike for most Christmas music stemmed from my time working in a grocery store in high school and college.

@Jesse: The choice is entirely Kroger's. Muzak offers 80+ channels. It's up to individual stores/chains to switch the receiver to a different channel.

No Krogers in this area, but I'd encourage people let the Kroger managers aware of their displeasure with this. Now, if Kroger's playing archived audio from Soma.FM's twisted Christmas, then give them a big thumbs-up! That I can listen to just about any month of the year.

And people wonder why workplace rampages happen.

@MostlyHarmless: Penguins eat beans? You should keep fish in your freezer for situations like these, obviously.

@MostlyHarmless: I hope you celebrated bean day properly...

@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Well, apparently Penguins take Tylenol as well, so beans are not too far beyond the realm of believability!

@FLConsumer: That was my plan when I saw this headline. I usually shop at a Kroger that sits right between home and work, but if they pull this crap before Halloween -- the music, at least -- I can go a little out of my way to Publix or Whole Foods for a few months. And when Publix and WF fall, I still have the option of going a lot out of my way to the farmer's market, which doesn't play music. SO THERE.

I've learned to embrace Christmas music in its proper context, but my attitude adjustment won't hold for long if I have to listen to it for months on end.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little....

@samurailynn: Its become a yearly tradition for my wife and me. We usually pick up the "cheap" laptop from microcenter or fry's, and make a couple hundred bucks reselling it. Its kind of fun in a weird way, too. Camp out all night, watch dvds on the laptop, huddle under the blanket. Its fun.

@kexline: If you go to Whole Foods it won't be Kroger that will be paying, it'll be YOU

@VOIDMunashii: Would you like that gift-wrapped?

@Jesse: I worked in a computer store and we had a store iPod. We had a Christmas playlist and some of us sneaked songs like "Players' Ball" by Outkast onto the list. On shuffle you could hear Bing Crosby and then Outkast, which was rather funny.

@MostlyHarmless: sounds like that nasty little bug that's been making the rounds of my family, i've had it for almost 3 weeks now. Every time one of us starts feeling well again another family member passes it right back to you. If it's not past in a couple of days, i'd definately check with a doc.

The stores have stepped up their holiday push, well I have stepped up my holiday ire for all this crap.

I started plotting last night what basic stuff we will likely need between now and January 2nd. I am going to stockpile things like toilet paper, toothpaste and non perishable food so the only thing I have to go shopping for is perishables.

The very few gifts this year will be hand made, food or bought off of ebay or etsy. If I can make it the rest of the year without having to deal with the insanity I will be a happy camper.

I can deal with the decorations and trees but music is where I draw the line. How about this, why don't stores just keep the Christmas shit up all year round? At the rate they are going, they aren't too far off from putting trees back out before Valentine's day.

Unfortunately Kroger in Lebanon, OH is not a current Muzak customer.

@Radi0logy: If it's fun for you, then it's worth it. My husband and I both hate crowds and shopping, so we'd rather stay home. We do hang out with relatives on Thanksgiving that end up browsing the ads by the end of the evening to prepare for their next day shopping, so if there's anything we're really dying for, we can ask someone to try and pick it up for us. I think that's only happened once too though.

Just wait, soon enough some team will win the World Series, then they'll have a parade. At the parade, the manager will say something painfully uncreative like "Looks like Christmas came early this year!" and a local radio station will take that as a cue to play Christmas music from the middle of October on.

I don't particularly care for the Christmas Creep, but I really don't get the anger it causes. I can ignore the Christmas stuff, the "it gets earlier every year!" crowd is a lot more in your face.

[customer.kroger.com]

Dear Kroger,

Please stop diluting Christmas / killing Halloween and Thanksgiving.

@Smashville_not taking it seriously: +1 for the Stephen King reference

This materialistic facade that Christmas has turned into is definitely scarier than a spider king who wants to end the world...

I work at a Kroger in Georgia, and we don't have Christmas music yet. Just the same playlist as always, which mostly consists of stereotypical country music. Ugh.

I was in Walgreens last night and walked past a display of Christmas bows, gift wrap, etc. Down the aisle, I could see the Halloween costumes and there were large Halloween decorations hanging from the light fixtures. It was surreal. I immediately thought of this place and wished I had a camera phone.

@Burning pakalolo not even noticing the weather:

There's always Hobby Lobby :)

i walked into home depot the other day and saw they already had the fake tree display up and fully dressed.

I haven't heard any Christmas stuff in the Kroger near me. It's oldies.

Country music at the store at the corner of Winchester and Moores Mill in Huntsville, AL. No Christmas music yet.....

On the other hand, it looks like all of the Christmas items are packaged in orange. Perhaps it's just a display for people who want to dress up as Santa Claus to go trick or treating?

The retail economy is like a cornered, injured animal.

@JohnQPublic: Are you kidding? Thanksgiving stopped existing when Halloween went mega-commercial.

@ohnoletsgo: Ok, then. Lowercase "m" in "Christmas tunes playing over the muzak".

"I could hear Christmas tunes playing over the Muzak."

So, they weren't playing Christmas music. They were playing Muzak.

What the poster probably heard was some Christmas item that was plugged in and playing, much like the Halloween items that are on display at many stores right now where you can press a button and hear the sound effects. Or perhaps there was a Christmas CD display and they were playing a demo.

Sounds like it was confined to that department if he could still here Muzak, which would be playing in all other areas of the store.

@mamalicious: And of course I meant hear, not "here".

@someToast:

Muzak has put a lot of pride in rebranding itself as a music consulting business that helps clients choose music that compliments their brand image. That being said, the choice of holiday music in September would not be something I'd reccomend to anyone looking to promote their brand. Also, did I just sell myself out as an employee? =)