From “doorbusters” to “advance deals” to hourly specials all through Black Friday weekend (not to mention Cyber Monday), the holiday shopping season is a continuous barrage of retail promotions varying in quality and value. In an attempt to rein things in, Target says it plans to offer fewer sales this holiday and hope that customers will be won over by everyday lower prices. [More]
Search results for: christmas creep
Costco Creates A Nightmare Before Christmas In This Seasonal Display
By 9.12.17
It’s the first half of September, which means that it’s time to celebrate our favorite holiday. No, not Halloween or Thanksgiving: The best holiday of all is Christmas/Halloween Mashup, as the classic animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas taught us all. The demands of seasonal displays mean that Nightmares Before Christmas also appear in the real world. Sometimes it’s even done well. [More]
The 50 Most-Read Consumerist Stories Of 2016
By 12.30.16
After what feels like a decade, 2016 is mercifully over, but before we can move forward into the brave new year it’s time to bring the recycling bin over toward our locker and purge the bulging Trapper Keeper we’ve been cramming stories into for the last 12 months. [More]
December Is Now The Usual Time To Start Selling Easter Candy
By 12.29.16
Do you have a craving for Easter candy? Good news! You can start preparing for the holiday, which is on Apr. 16 in 2017, because Easter treats have been on store shelves for over a week now. [More]
Here’s A Huge List Of Holiday Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your Family
By 12.23.16
The gifts have been opened, the whiskey has been added to the eggnog, and all you want i to stop talking to everyone who’s been getting on your nerves all day. Here’s to hoping you’ve got access to a streaming subscription service, and your father-in-law finally figured out where he put the piece of paper with the WiFi password on it. [More]
Survey: Americans Waiting Until After Election To Shop For Holidays
By 10.27.16
Whether it’s because of anxiety due to the upcoming presidential and congressional elections or a stubborn refusal to even think about winter holidays before Halloween, Americans are reportedly waiting until after the election is over to begin their shopping. No, they’re not waiting until after Thanksgiving: that would be silly. [More]
Report: 34M People Have Already Started Holiday Shopping
By 9.29.16
While some of us haven’t yet gotten all the beach sand out of shoes or pulled out the fall blankets, there are 34 million people out there who are already in the holiday spirit and have started shopping. [More]
Christmas Creep Season Kicks Off Nationwide
By 9.21.16
Every holiday has two seasons: its actual season, and its creep season. The latter is that time of year during which people complain that it’s too soon to be selling decorations, cards, costumes, or other items for that holiday. Even things that aren’t really holidays can creep up, like back-to-school season. Here are some Christmas Creep sightings from across the country, so you’ll know where to pick up an artificial evergreen in mid-September for future reference. [More]
Retailers Are Wearing Us Down: Shoppers Don’t Mind Holiday Creep So Much
By 9.20.16
Holiday Creep, and more specifically Christmas Creep, are common annoyances of modern shopping. When the school supplies disappear from shelves, the Christmas trees and lights appear, making shoppers feel like the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. This is becoming more normal, though: some recent survey results show that fewer Americans find Christmas Creep less annoying than in previous years. They’re wearing us down. [More]
A Whole Bunch Of Christmas Movies You Can Stream Instead Of Talking To Your Family
By 12.23.15
The presents have all been unwrapped, the egg nog has done its job and you’re ready to stop talking to everyone who’s been getting on your nerves all day. Here’s to hoping you’ve got access to a streaming subscription service, and your father-in-law finally figured out where he put the piece of paper with the WiFi password on it. [More]
Please Stop Sharing This Photo Of A Nordstrom Anti-Christmas Creep Poster
By 11.10.15
Here in the Consumerist Cave, we’re always amused when a photo or a story makes a complete lap of the newsosphere, and a reader sends it to us having no idea that it originated with us. This week, things are starting to get strange, as social media users are sharing and even legitimate news outlets are posting a small, blurry camera phone photo of a sign posted at Nordstrom about their Christmas decorations policy. A photo that we posted six years ago. [More]
9 Things We Learned About HSN’s $2.5 Billion Per Year TV-Commerce Operation
By 10.5.15
You might not think about HSN very much, but that’s because you aren’t part of their target demographic: women over 35 who enjoy shopping but want to choose from a curated collection of stuff, maybe designed or at least endorsed by a familiar celebrity. If that doesn’t sound like a large portion of the population, you’d be surprised: HSN takes in $2.5 billion per year. [More]
Retailers Prepare To Fight Holiday Shoppers And Each Other To Not Offer Discounts
By 10.5.15
Retailers really, really want to wean American shoppers off our recession-era addiction to discounts. Will it be possible for them to resist the temptation to slap “40% off” signs everywhere to attract customers? Retail forecasts for this holiday season show that retailers want to avoid selling products at a discount, while consumers plan to make their shopping decisions according to price. [More]
Yes, Here’s A Full Halloween Candy Display At Walgreens
By 7.21.15
Jill knew that her blog readers wouldn’t believe what she had seen, even if she presented them with a photo. At her local Walgreens store, there was a full display of Halloween treats, including candy corn and Snickers pumpkins. Halloween. On July 21. Please, retailers, we’re still uncomfortable at seeing Back-to-School displays in the big-box stores! Don’t do this to us! [More]
Reminder: Hallmark’s Ornament Launch In July Is Not Christmas Creep
By 7.7.15
We take a firm stand against Holiday Creep, which is when retailers start to merchandise and decorate for a given holiday months in advance. The offending holiday is usually, but not always, Christmas. Every year around this time, we hear from exasperated shoppers who walk by a Hallmark gift shop and see their display of new Christmas ornaments, leading our readers to wonder what this world is coming to. Yet Hallmark’s Christmas displays aren’t what they seem. [More]
Hobby Lobby Misses Prime Opportunity For More Christmas Mashups
By 5.21.15
Hobby Lobby, a chain of craft and home decor chains, is infamous on this site for two things: being the first retailer to put out Christmas merchandise every year, and for taking advantage of that fact by making glorious “Nightmare Before Christmas” trees, or Christmas trees covered with beautiful fall leaves and acorns. That’s why we’re disappointed in them: if they’re going to get Christmas decorations out in May, why not double-celebrate other holidays too? [More]
Babies “R” Us Is Already Over Christmas, Moves On To Valentine’s Day
By 12.15.14
It’s not often that we find a retailer that’s over Christmas before it even starts — on the contrary, we usually find Christmas Creep to be the creepiest of all the holiday creeps, sometimes starting as far back as July. But they’re not having it over at Babies “R” Us. In fact, Christmas might as well be over, for all this store cares. [More]
Don’t Want To Buy An Ugly Holiday Sweater You’ll Only Wear Once? Now You Can Rent It
By 12.5.14
If you don’t have a female relative over the age of 50 who can conveniently provide you with a glittery, puffy landscape of giant snowflakes and bedazzled Christmas trees, it’s understandable that you don’t want to drop the big bucks on an ugly holiday sweater you’ll never wear again after that Ugly Holiday Sweater Party you’ll inevitably be invited to at some point in your life. As an alternative, now you can rent one. And never see it again, like that other mistake you made last holiday season. [More]
