Daniel reports that Christmas decorations are already out at his San Francisco Costco. “SERIOUSLY, WTF?? It’s not even September yet!!” he writes. Like that stops anyone.
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Every year the same story. Believe it or not, BUSINESSES shop at Costco. You know, businesses that might make Christmas baskets or other items where they actually NEED this stuff to get their product ready for the Christmas season.
I think this is the most reasonable explanation. Costco rolls out these things early mostly because everything is in bulk. Presumably, you shop there for Christmas items because you require large quantities. If you have to put together 300 baskets, you have to start early. Likewise, craft and hobby shops put stuff out way early too because making things takes time.
plus, in this economy making some side scratch in the handmade knick-knack racket is appealing to most.
+1 Take a stroll through a JoAnn fabrics or other craft center… they already have Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas stuff ready for the crafters.
My wife went there a month before Christmas one year looking for some decorations – it was slim pickings and 80% off because they had already staged up the Valentines Day and St. Patty’s Day supplies.
I don’t think people shop at JoAnn fabrics except for mostly seasonal items. So it makes sense for that kind of store to always have the next holiday’s items available.
I shop at JoAnn fabrics all the time, and not just for seasonal items. People who make quilts, sew their own clothes, design costumes, sell crafts, etc. are in there all the time.
+1
Ah…good point. This now seems quite reasonable!
So what do the ‘Christmas Tree’ shops the rest of the year?
Closeout merchandise and cheap crap.
Seeing this Christmas stuff so early in the year just kills the holiday for me.
ETA: I understand why a store will start selling Christmas merchandise at this time, but I still get a bit bummed out when I see Christmas lights and wrapping paper in August.
really? That’s pretty sad
Half the fun of Christmas (for me) is the anticipation. If you start seeing stuff out in August, it’s just not fun anymore.
Hobby Lobby starts putting out Christmas in late May or early June. I worked thru 2 Christmases there, and the lack of staff to put it all out, and the incredible volume of stuff to put out definitely warrants starting that early.
Thanks for explaining this, that helps a bit. We have noticed our Hobby Lobby putting up decorations in early July and couldn’t ever figure out why.
Plus the customers who make stuff need to get started early. I always want to make Christmas stuff and then don’t get around to it. You definitely have to take some extra time.
I give it three years before we start seeing Christmas stuff year round.
Ohhh man now I’m ready for Christmas..or at least some cooler weather. And football season
get over it. most companies selling Christmas decor have had mdse out since June or July.
Companies who provide those Christmas decorations for other companies have been designing and working with Christmas product for a couple months now. (how else will they be ready to dress the bank etc in November)
Just avert your eyes and move on……
I was going to send this in a week ago, but I figured while on vacation, someone would have gotten to it.
Honestly? I’m just glad that xmas is not edging out 4th of July quite yet.
Who cares? These types of stories are posted a lot, but who cares and what does it matter
Look man. This is 30% of the posts starting from July until the end of October.
So, you better get used to it!
At least we know that San Francisco hasn’t decided to ban Christmas yet.
-1
I thought dumb coastal humor was supposed to be NY vs. LA?
Nah. The people in LA never got the jokes.
+75
OK, now THIS is a GENUINE example of Christmas Creep. Unlike the Hobby Lobby story back in June or July, because as a “craft” store, it’s natural for HL to be ahead of the rest in selling holiday materials.
I worked for Costco for a summer in college one year and they told us that they start stocking seasonal items one quarter before the season – mostly for institutional buyers that need to buy stuff that early. So yeah, it is kind of Christmas creep, but it’s a different kind. This one isn’t nearly as consumer focused as it looks.
Yes folks, you will see Christmas Creep at Costco. You will also have to show a receipt. If this is a problem, stop at the desk and get your $50 back…..
I was a “Visual Specialist” for a department store years ago and it was my job to put up all the Christmas decorations. The rule was that we had to have everything set by Halloween. Customers bitched about it all the time.
We started seeing the Christmas stuff that was actually for sale start to come in around September. People actually bought it then, so I think companies just test the waters and see how early they can drag this stuff out and actually make a sale on it. As ridiculous as it seems, retailers do it because some wackos actually buy it now. I mean…it’s 90 degrees out today. I’m certainly thinking about putting up a Christmas tree.
Please see my comments from last year’s story about the same for a link to Costco’s many-year-old-straight-from-the-horse’s-mouth explanation about their seasonal product system. I’m tired of having to hunt it down year after year.
Craft items I can understand, but I’ve seen a ton of Christmas decorations in far too many stores already. Does anyone really need to start setting up their fake-snow-dusted, Christmas-themed, light-up village scene this early in the year?
I like the Halloween version of the Christmas little town with ghosts, graveyards, haunted mansions/ships, ghouls, etc- I think it was at Micheal’s last year. My two preteen boys also liked it though because of the crazy situations displayed. I remember the songs or sounds were really loud though…
Hell, HSN and QVC have been having Christmas shows since the summer solstice.
Um, my wife and I are terrible people. We set up all of our christmas stuff in our rear living room last year and haven’t taken it down YET!
It’s kind of one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things because we rarely use that room for anything other than studying. And of course, when we are studying we don’t pay that much attention to the decorations.
Weak excuse over, we are horrible.
Don’t feel bad..we put up two trees in our house every year, a fake one in our sunroom and a real one in our game room…the real one came down pretty quickly (when I say quickly I mean by mid-January), but the fake one was up until April, and it’s like that every year! We just get used to it after a while and don’t even think about it lol.
Don’t feel bad! I have had Xmas decorated garland over my sliding glass door for going on three years now-every once in a while, it occurs to me that people that are coming over for the first time might find it odd.
I predict it won’t be long before Christmas stuff in out in the spring…………..
They also have snow pants out at mine
I think it’s good for spreading out your holiday spending over a few months instead of all at once closer to the holidays. I like to start shopping for gifts around now, that way there isn’t a time/money crunch later on. I make a lot of small gifts, too-so this gives me supplies in advance.
Oh, it’s worse than you think. This is actually stuff being sold for Christmas 2011, not 2010.
/joke stolen from somewhere on the internet.