Christmas Creep

Yep, The Easter Candy Is Out Already At Safeway And Kroger
In 2008, we published the first reports of Easter candy in stores on December 31. In 2009, they were spotted on shelves on December 23. Last year, the first appearance crept back to December 16. This year, our first reports came from Safeway and Kroger stores as early as December 2. More »

Malls Cancel Plans To Track Shoppers' Movements Via Cellphone
Remember how two malls annoyed more than a few people by announcing that they would be tracking shoppers' movements via their cellphone signals? Yeah, well that's no longer happening — at least for now. More »

Reenacting '12 Days Of Christmas' Will Now Cost You More Than $100K
If you've ever thought about actually purchasing all the items (though we assume you'd need to rent the lords a-leaping, maids a-milking, and all the ladies dancing to the drumming drummers and piping pipers) listed in the holiday classic "The 12 Days of Christmas," you had better have a pile of cash at the ready. More »

Nordstrom Once Again Refuses To Put Up Holiday Decorations Before Thanksgiving
As more and more stores give into the Christmas Creep, putting trees and wreaths out on the sales floor as early as June and July, Nordstrom continues to buck the trend — not only refusing to put up holiday decorations before Thanksgiving, but also letting the world know about it. More »

Target Responds To Workers Who Don't Want To Work Thanksgiving Night
Earlier this week, we wrote about how one Target employee had started a petition asking the retailer to cancel its plans to open at midnight after Thanksgiving. And even though the petition now has more than 100,000 names, Target is shrugging it off because that employee wasn't scheduled to work that night anyway. More »

Target Employees Fight Back Against Store's Plan To Open Thanksgiving Night
Because people simply can not wait until after they've digested their turkey to cash in on deep discounts, many of the major retail chains are opening earlier than usual on Black Friday this year. This is not sitting well with thousands of Target employees who have signed a petition for the store to at least let them finish their pumpkin pie before having to report to work. More »

White House Gets Dept. Of Agriculture To Delay Christmas Tree Tax
Less than 24 hours after the Dept. of Agriculture announced a program that would charge a $.15/tree "tax" to Christmas tree growers in order to fund a campaign to promote those very trees, the White House has responded to the flurry of criticism by asking the regulators to rethink the idea. More »

Dept. Of Agriculture Announces Christmas Tree Tax To Help Promote Christmas Trees
UPDATE: The White House says it has asked the Dept. of Agriculture to press pause on this fee while it rethinks the program. More »

Isn't It A Tad Early To Be Selling "Belated" Christmas Cards?
Seems to be jumping the gun a bit to already be selling "Belated Christmas" cards, don't you think? More »